A Day In The Life

Damien Cave of the New York Times provides a must-read report from a day spent with American troops in the battle for Haifa Street.

Sadly, there is a bullet that strkes an American soldier and causes his death.

There is also the Iraqi Shiite family in the apartment next door huddled together around a single heater and below the window sills. The best the Americans can offer, under the circumstances and before they leave, is that the family members keep their mouths open when the airstrikes hit the next building over so as to avoid blowing their eardrums.