IRAQ. Rawa. 2006. Sergeant Jackson rested in the living room while his platoon searched the rest of the house for a
suspected insurgent. They found nothing suspicious, and the commander assumed he had received
bad intelligence. Most of the raids I witnessed were dry holes. Before leaving, the commanding
officer would occasionally compensate for damage by pressing a wad of soiled dinars or dollars
into wary hands. Usually the platoon would leave without an apology to continue searching for their
target, or return to base before insurgents had the chance to organize and attack.