A GLOVES-OFF VIEW OF ONE BATTALION IN IRAQ SINCE DAY ONE.

But the look in some of their eyes reveals the emotion is not entirely for others - it is personal, it is painful and it is eating them up.

With each passing day of heat, dirt and squalor, there is a simmering resentment among some of the men of the 2-70. Some of the repressed hostility is focused on Iraqis and some of it is reserved for commanders who are perceived to work in distant, air conditioned offices far away from the conditions they endure.

Sometimes that pent-up rage and psychic damage has boiled over. One soldier had to be wrestled to the ground by other soldiers after he loaded his M-16 in camp after a minor dispute with another soldier. A few men have been psychologically evaluated and one soldier has been sent home because of his mental health condition.

It is not a pleasant story, but it sounds very authentic.

Those soldiers deserve to go home. But, of course, we've discussed the lack of replacement forces already.