This is

The two artillery rounds were wrapped in tape and hidden under a bag and left alongside a road. We found them one night and "blew them up". Because of this, American and Iraqi lives were saved. The insurgents do not discriminate between American or Iraqi when they create havoc overhere. They kill whomever they can.
I see acres of trash with huts made of trash, there is a man drinking water out of the ditch in the trash heap, children playing soccer on a dirt field among the trash.
I see farm land. Green grass, freshly cut hay drying in the morning sun, an apple orchart, corn, wheat, beans. There are goats, sheep and cattle grazing in the fields. Here is a farmer with his shovel opening the irrigation ditch to water his crops. There is a boy herding his sheep.
And we stop traffic along the road while we defuse the IED.
This is Iraq. Scenery that reminds me of home (if not for the palm trees) and scenery that defies description. There is the smell that I will never forget-something like sulfur, sewage and rotting something.
People out walking in the evening air. The kids wave, the adults stare, some quite hard.
This is Iraq. Hot, dusty, green, dirty, smelly, beautiful, cruel, dangerous.