Conversation with the newly (2 days) returned gi husband of one of the barista's.

He was in n. iraq and in bagdad. Was over there for better than 7 months all told so that will tell you branch and unit if you care to think about it.

I don't want to get him in trouble.

However, I have to note that he says
1) reporters are targeted, both by iraqi's -for shooting
and by us-mil for control/censor
2) first thing a new replacement is told on arriving at-station, and in-country is that 'we are losing this war. Now the point is to stay alive until this shitholemess is seen for what it is, and we (the soldiers) are yanked out.
3) no one has clean clothes, soap, water. or electricity if they are in the field. Some have slept in the same clothes so long that skin disease is starting to take toll on soldiers. Several in this guy's unit were sent home when they started bleeding 'too much' from the constant 'sand sores'.
4) recent joke is that bush says 'bring it on' but troops say 'we will but we're over here and can't get to him.'
5) they call bushie or any of his reps currently in-country as 'sp' meaning 'strickly political' which means it has no basis in reality and only exists in the minds of the 'sick f---"'
6) there is a new thing called the 'dead pool' which is a pooled bet on what the CBC-AM will be to by the time they (meaning the folks back home) 'get it' that the war is 'sp' and call the troops home. Supposedly any armed services member whose been in iraq can join for a buck. The amount of the pool is now up over 46 thousand.

Oh, CBC-AM is "Cummulative Body Count- American".

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=72488