Sgt. 1st class Matt MacClellan, 37, a father of two who trains another division of Iraqis but lives on Old MOD, said he is not in Iraq to fight the war on terrorism. If anything, he said, the United States spread terrorism by invading Iraq. "Now that we are here, though, it definitely has morphed into the war on terror," he said. "We took over a country that had structure and took that structure away."

The soldiers say they want to leave a stable country but also want to get out alive. "I don't think you can use the word 'winnable,' " MacClellan said. "Really, I've scrubbed that from the vocabulary of my thinking. 'Subdued' would be about the best."

Another:

"I see pictures of him walking on the American flag. Is that irritating?" (Lt. Colonel Edward) Taylor said. "It's irritating, but Sadr is not my enemy. He is not considered a terrorist." Sadr, he added, is "a guy who can be part of the government or considered to be someone you want to negotiate with, and at the same time he has his hands in things you want to stamp out."

Oh - when I first read it I assumed "lives on Old MOD" meant that he was a big fan of USA for MOD, but not their post-2003 reunion albums. While I could see how listening to "Aren't You Hungry" and "Hate Tank" would be condusive to blowing stuff up in Iraq, it seemed an odd thing for the Washington Post to take note of. Now I see that Old MOD is the nickname of an Army base in Iraq - makes sense.
 Justaguy | 1:47 PM