US Soldier asks: "Why can’t we just come out here, have our fight and go home?"

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=f22c5ffe-0e44-4ab6-8ab1-968df5567170&k=2919

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The largest Baghdad enclave of Iraq’s Shiite majority, Sadr City is the base for the Mahdi Army, a militia led by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Under pressure from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in October, U.S. soldiers took down barbed-wire barricades that controlled traffic in and out of the area. Since then, they have ventured in only sparingly.

But so many mortar and rocket attacks have been launched from the outskirts of Sadr City in recent weeks that U.S. commanders decided to raid homes nearby, searching for weapons.

Many soldiers wondered whether what they were looking for was worth the risk.

"Every day we have a mission, but it’s hard to see how that helps accomplish what we came here to do, how it fits into the big picture," said Sgt. James Simons, 24, of Tacoma, Wash., a soldier in the battalion’s Company A.

A roadside bomb soon exploded under a Stryker driving down a nearby street. No one was injured because the vehicle’s engine absorbed much of the force of the blast.

"I hate that combat takes so long," said Staff Sgt. Gaylord Reese of Coffeeyville, Kan., who leaned against a bedroom wall at Dhamin’s home. "Why can’t we just come out here, have our fight and go home?"