Perspective: Marine Unit and Iraqis Fend Off Attacks and Boredom

KARMA, Iraq — On the day after the ambush, two marines walked from their sandbagged quarters inside the Iraqi police station here, passed by a collapsed building next door and entered Post 2.

Post 2 is a 6-foot-by-6-foot box that stands about seven feet high on top of the broken building’s ruins. It is framed with lumber and plywood and surrounded by stacked bags of sand.

It has three windows, each covered by a bulletproof windshield designed for armored trucks. The center windshield, which faces a shuttered market, has been whitened by circular cracks where bullets have struck.

It looks as if it has been smacked by a sledgehammer. “Anything suspicious to report?” asked one marine, Lance Cpl. James A. Ullery, gazing at the traffic on the road 25 yards away.

“Everything is suspicious,” said the other marine, Lance Cpl. Donterry L. Woods.

The ambush happened the night before, in the darkness before the half-moon rose, after an Iraqi Army convoy visited the station to drop off food.

The police station in Karma is defended by several dozen marines and a smaller guard force from the Iraqi Army.

The Iraqi soldiers in the convoy warmly embraced the Iraqi soldiers living with the marines. It was a reunion of sorts, a respite from the war. They were all Shiite soldiers from southern Iraq, assigned to Anbar Province, which is Sunni territory.

The insurgents kill them even more often than they kill the marines.

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