Perspective: Back to the kill zone in Anbar

Members of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry in Anbar last year

Staff Sgt. Mike Root summed up his thoughts about his third, yearlong deployment to Iraq next month:

"Crappy," said Root, 35, from Lexington, Ky. "It's kinda hard going into a place knowing that they're targeting us."

Weariness and resignation echo through the low brick buildings and training fields of the Fort Stewart Army base as Root and his comrades at the 2-7 infantry battalion of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division are gearing up for their third combat tour in Iraq since 2003.

The soldiers are about to spend a year in a province where American troops are being killed almost daily, at a time when domestic support is fast dwindling for a war the soldiers know America is not winning.

"It's heartbreaking to go back and know that the support is not there," said Staff Sgt. Darrell Foster, 26, from Buckhannon, W. Va.

Most soldiers agree that the upcoming deployment will be their toughest yet: The 2-7's new mission is to bring peace to Hit, a town in Iraq's volatile western Anbar province, where the anti-U.S. insurgency rages with undiminished ferocity.

"I don't think anybody wants to do it again, but we train and we're ready to go," said Sgt. 1st Class John Teasley, 33, of Ormond Beach, Fla., with a shrug.

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