Today is New Year's Day. I got back to Mahmudiyah a couple of days ago; strange to be back. I have become re-sensitized to the sounds of explosions and gunfire, it seems. A person gets used to it very quickly, believe it or not.

The day I left Baghdad Sadaam was executed. When I got back to Mahmudiyah that afternoon, the TV in the part of the chow hall that usually has the news on was switched to a movie. No one was talking about his execution down here, or even the anticipated upswing in insurgent violence. As bad as it may sound, I feel indifferent about it. Maybe these guys do too. We're not here for Sadaam or for any other person, for that matter, or for any idea either. Soldiers get up every day and do what they do for their own survival and for the survival of the guy next to them. We don't make political decisions. We made a commitment to something, duty. The rest is irrelevant and a distraction, really. I find myself far less interested in politics over here.