From the Field

Across six days in October, I got an inside look at the U.S. military that's afforded very few. With 44 other civilians and Defense Department escorts, I flew 17,000 miles through seven time zones to three Persian Gulf countries and Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. We participated in a ground training

I returned with a blur of impressions: the vastness of the American enterprise in the region; the high quality and spirit of the troops; the great difficulty of fighting in Iraqi cities; the commanders' laser focus on the roadside bombs that so threaten our troops; the frank acknowledgment by military leaders that political, social and economic reforms are prerequisites to "victory" and their deep resentment that they're not getting more help from civilian federal agencies.