Word: 2nd
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...better friend, no worse enemy." The words echoed through 2nd Lieut. Ilario Pantano's head on the afternoon of April 15, 2004. That was the motto of Lieut. General James Mattis, at the time the commander of the 1st Marine Division in Iraq. Like many junior officers, Pantano looked up to Mattis as the consummate warrior-general. The phrase had stuck with Pantano as he tried to keep his men alive in some of Iraq's meanest neighborhoods, where friends are hard to find...
Going back to the Marines meant a 75% salary cut, but Pantano loved it. In January 2004, after a year of officer's training, he was assigned as a second lieutenant to Easy Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of Marines--2-2, for short. In mid-March they arrived in Iraq. Pantano prepared his platoon by working the men hard. His men grumbled--enlisted men call officers like Pantano "motarded"--motivated to the point of retardation. But he believed that the more they trained, the fitter they were, the more chance they had of surviving...
Backed by Bradley fighting vehicles, the American soldiers of Coldsteel Company swarm into a clutch of farmhouses as a platoon of Estonian infantry closes from the rear. The Americans are part of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment's operation to seal off a stretch of villages hugging the Euphrates in the Jafr Sakhr region, about 60 miles southwest of Baghdad. "Go round 'em up," a U.S. officer hollers, and male villagers of military age--one with his crying 3-year-old clinging to his neck--are sifted out. A humvee approaches and stops in front of the lined...
...foreign occupation and are cause for serious concern. However, it is easy to forget, because of their low media coverage in the U.S., that the bloodiest and most frequent attacks are not at Iraqi civilians. Attacks such as the early December massacre of eighteen young Shiite men, the January 2nd bombing of a National Guard bus or the January 5th bombing of a police graduation ceremony show that the insurgents do not enjoy the widespread popular support sometimes claimed but rather are resorting to fear-inducing attacks to cow the population into submission. Attacks on Iraqi civilians often yield...
...triangle, Pentagon officials say, U.S. and Iraqi forces conduct about 1,000 foot patrols every day. "We are definitely on the offensive," says a Pentagon official. In Baghdad the 1st Cavalry Division has brought in two battalions from the ??lite 82nd Airborne and extended the rotation of its own 2nd Brigade, adding about 5,000 troops. On election day, the job of providing security at 5,900 polling stations nationwide will fall mainly to the Iraqis--150,000 U.S. forces will try to fade into the background as much as possible. There are 7,600 Iraqi troops...