John_Stone Report This Comment Date: April 03, 2006 01:09AM
October, 2004. Samarra, Iraq. This infantryman rests in the sitting room of an
Iraqi family whose house he has just raided. He, along with hundreds of other
soldiers, had just completed a 36-hour sweep of some 1,000 houses across
Southern Samarra. The raids were part of a mission to capture or kill insurgents
and destroy their weapons, the first phase of an ongoing operation against
insurgents in Iraq. The engraved band on the soldier's wrist is worn by many
U.S. troops to commemorate friends killed in action.
Photo by Ashley Gilbertson—Aurora
"When I think about these raids I think about the Iraqi families. At one
house, soldiers kicked in the door, and there was a wedding party. The family of
the bride couldn't go home—they were too scared to go into the street. There
they were, at their daughter's wedding, pleading for their lives, pleading to go
home." —A.G.