Adamiya is downtown along the Tigris. It touches or includes the University, a market, a soccer stadium, a hospital, and some nice restaurants and embassies, as well as other places.

Our battalion, the 11th Engineers of the Engineer Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, was assigned this district to do presence patrols, help reestablish clean water, energy, sewer, and other infrastructure. We also assisted with security and supplies for one of the hospitals.

I met many fine people here, and became convinced that our mission in the war is both vital to the healing of Iraq and a complicated affair, in which defining and opposing the enemy is no easy business.