"They all hate us here anyway," one soldier says.
So here is one soldier who has made it his last mission not to leave his Iraqi friends behind.
Today the Indian Army shot dead two gunmen who had opened fire in front of an army base northwest of here, killing one soldier.
Another unit of American soldiers also met grenade fire in the village of Dujayl, about 18 miles north of here, and at least one soldier was wounded.
He, too, is here, one of some 21,000 British soldiers killed or fatally wounded on the day of greatest bloodshed in the history of their country's military, before or since.
One soldier says to another, "Here, the situation is catastrophic, but not serious".
One soldier said, "If Donald Rumsfeld was here, I'd ask him for his resignation".
One soldier in a cartoon complains, "I really shouldn't be here.
Every real soldier will tell you the same thing"." As to winning the war, one soldier said directly to McChrystal's face that "Sir, some of the guys here, sir, think we're losing, sir".
