<p>PREFACE--!~ soldier who has experienced the relentless onslaught of~[ .gun fire, the punishing rain of shrapnel, or the tragedy a fellow soldier will tell you that there is nothing any ofl ~at more than peace. We fight willingly, but we understand~cost&quot;~/~a soldiers, we do not choose the wars or conflicts in which~t~t. We take an oath and pledge to go anywhere, anytime our calls. We do not fight for some greater political cause. In we rarely think of the global significance of our mission.~lil~t for the soldier standing next to us suffering the same ~lips. Every day, our primary objective is simply to do our md get one another back alive. ~With every sunrise in Iraq, we faced our mortality. Mortar ~roeket-prapelled grenade attacks, improvised explosive suidde bombers, mujahideen, corrupt police, foreign A1 Qaeda, and innocent civilians used as weapons-- ~lure the threats we confronted every day. the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, my unit, Dragon lay, was dispatched to Husaybah, on the Syrian border, just ~surgency began to emerge as a threat. We quickly real- ~|t had become the primary entry point for mercenaries, and veteran foreign fighters responsible for increasing throughout the country. ~ah was the most dangerous assignment of my military</p>