It’s nighttime and I am lying on a cot in a room over stuffed with members of the platoon that I am embedded with, some of whom are sleeping, others are watching porn on a laptop and commenting on what they would do if they found themselves in the depicted situation. A blast shakes the building and instantly we are on our feet, scrambling for our body armor, helmets and eye protection. This is Baghdad during the summer of 2007. We are located in the Ghazaliya Neighborhood in the “Triangle of Death,” an area known for its extreme violence and still suffering from daily attacks and plagued by death squads, IED’s, sniper and rocket attacks and militias. We are in compound consisting of two Iraqi houses which the US army requisitioned, using one purely as housing for infantry troops while the other houses the higher ranks as well as nerve center for planning and communications.