Perspective: Troops uncertain about Iraq's future

An Iraqi woman peers out from behind her gate as a member of the 10th Mountain Division passes by

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Their alarm clocks went off at 3:30 a.m., sending members of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division reaching for their M-4 assault rifles then trudging from their tents and trailers into six-inch deep mud.

Piling into Humvees, they rumbled through verdant brush along irrigation canals south of Baghdad, which provides excellent cover for bombs. Hundreds of American soldiers have died in these mostly Sunni Muslim villages since the war began.

But nearly four years into the fighting, some soldiers say it's getting more difficult to swing their legs over the edge of the cot each morning. With America's Iraq policy in flux, some troops say they're asking themselves for the first time whether the U.S. can win the war - or what winning really means here.

"It's hard to tell what's right here anymore," said Case Dewinkel, a 23-year-old Army specialist from Madison, Wis.

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