Road to nowhere

[unhappycamper]

Road to nowhere
By Les Neuhaus, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, September 9, 2007


BAGHDAD — Coalition forces have stepped up efforts to reduce the threat of roadside bombs on two major supply arteries in eastern Baghdad where surprise attacks killed five U.S. troops in the past week.

But it is an uphill battle, said several troops responsible for clearing the routes on a daily basis.

“If anything, it’s only gotten worse since we’ve been here,” Staff Sgt. Robert Schuelke, of Milwaukee, said as his platoon prepared for another roadside-bomb-clearing mission Saturday morning.

“Our sector’s the only one since the beginning of the war that hasn’t really gotten any better.”

Schuelke is a member of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, which belongs to the 1st Cavalry Division’s 2nd Brigade. The men in his unit are currently in eastern Baghdad with the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division.

As the 26-year-old soldier made the comment, more than a dozen soldiers — senior noncommissioned officers and junior enlisted alike — nodded in agreement as they stood by listening.

Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=48644