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Instead, Charlie Rock is guarding swatches of desert where danger swirls like sand devils and then disappears. Sure, kids still pester the troops for candy and water. But the grownups aren't in a hospitable mood. In fact, small groups of Iraqi soldiers, many in plain clothes, are letting the heavy metal pass--70-ton M1A1 Abrams tanks and Bradley troop carriers--and lying in wait for the soft-skinned, lightly armed trucks hauling fuel, food and water. Every day, the journey to Baghdad stretches ever longer as Charlie Rock and other units like it that expected to be on the front line are finding themselves policing a road and facing dogged Iraqi resistance. There were seven attacks last week on the 800-strong task force of which Charlie Rock is part. Welcome, liberators.
A growing number of Iraqi ambushers have been captured or killed. But Charlie Rock remains riled up by news of the American maintenance crew some 30 miles away that may have made a wrong turn, leading to the deaths, possibly by execution, of seven soldiers and the capture of five others. The grunts are furious. Iraqi deserters or scouts unfortunate enough to come across Charlie Rock's newly ordered checkpoints are bearing the brunt of the company's outrage. "Don't look at me. Don't f___ing look at me, or I swear to god I'll cut you in half," yells Sergeant Patrick Dunleavy at Khaled, 23, who says he is fleeing Baghdad and who, from his uniform, appears to be a republican guard deserter. "Man, sometimes I wish we didn't have the Geneva Convention. You see what they did to our guys?"
The soldiers of Charlie Rock have learned to treat every Iraqi they come across as a potential enemy. The unit's commander, Captain Jorge Melendez, 31, thinks the guerrilla attacks will continue sporadically for "two or three months." Mitchell had hoped to be back in the U.S. by mid-April after three months in Kuwait, but he has resigned himself to a long, frustrating and bloody haul. "I've stopped telling her when I think I'll be home," says Mitchell, pointing to the picture of his wife Melina and son Garrett, 10, that is strapped to the outside of his left arm. "All I know is, home is after Baghdad. And god knows when that'll be."
Taking Iraq, One Village at a Time AT TAHRIR SIMON ROBINSON
In Vietnam, it was known as the village-pacification program: Marines in the Combined Action Program first took out Charlie and communist sympathizers, and then tried to convince the villagers that life would be swell now that the bad guys were gone.
In the central Iraqi region of Al Qadisiyah, the mostly Shi'ite population isn't likely to buy this approach so easily. In the second week of the campaign, advancing coalition troops faced up to one of the fundamental miscalculations of the early days of the war: blasting conventional Iraqi forces hasn't been enough. They also have to go into towns and take out Baath Party officials and fedayeen fighters loyal to Saddam. Only then can one even begin to talk about prospects of local people--circumspect after the U.S. encouraged previous uprisings that were later crushed--partying in the streets. "Only when there is physical presence can people feel safe," says Sergeant Major David Howell, with 3/4 Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment.