Iraq

Willard: It's a way we had over here with living with ourselves. We cut 'em in half with a machine gun and give 'em a Band-Aid. It was a lie. And the more I saw them, the more I hated lies.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

U.S. Paratroopers Seek to Win Hearts

BAGHDAD (AP) - Six Humvees rolled into one of the poor neighborhoods that share Baghdad's northern fringe with groves of date palms, and school teacher Mustafa Hassan climbed out to tears, hugs and kisses.

Hassan had been detained by the U.S. military for five months on suspicion of involvement in insurgent activity, but his innocence was championed by an American paratrooper lieutenant and now he was being delivered home with respect.

In this remote corner of Baghdad, soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade, many on their third Iraq tour, are trying to leave their mark in a war defined as much by perceptions of conduct as by battlefield exploits.

Hassan's case illustrates the competing needs of quelling violence and reaching out to Iraqis.

Yeah reaching out to Iraqis - Babel, Sept 22, 2007 (VOI) – U.S. forces killed a family of seven members including women and children on suspicion they belonged to one of the militias in al-Iskandariya district, 50 km north of Babel province, an official police source in Babel said. Best of luck with that!