FACING THE DUTY

With the world focused on the recent massive car bombings in Baghdad at the United Nations headquarters and the Jordanian embassy, several soldiers in the 2nd Battalion of the Army's 3rd Field Artillery Regiment last week discussed the lower profile dangers of routine life for American troops in the Iraqi capital.

Nation building, in their view, has been sidetracked by a low-intensity war, with its searches, arrests and ambushes. They feel increasingly isolated from the city and the people outside their compound, which has taken on the trappings of permanence.

"You just have to pray when you go out the gate. You just hope and pray it ain't your day," says Montague(cq) Williams, 29, of Savannah, Ga., who served as a U.S. peacekeeper in Bosnia in the 1990s and now works in the base operations center, keeping track of soldiers out in the city.

Based in Giessen, Germany, the battalion came to Baghdad in May, a month after the city fell to American troops. Several hundred soldiers made their home on the grounds of one of Saddam Hussein's urban palaces, with villas and gardens curving along the banks of the Tigris River. Though heavily damaged by bombing in the war, many of the ornate buildings are still habitable. One stone building is said to be where Saddam's son Uday would take women. A U.S. commander lives there now.

Many expect to be in the country until next May. The soldiers have installed basketball hoops, a volleyball court and a well-stocked fitness room in a tent. The rubble has been cleared from the swimming pool, which gets used a lot. The Internet connections are improving and, with their own money, soldiers have invested in satellite telephones, refrigerators and televisions.

A typical day for a soldier on the base can mean hanging out in the barracks or at the pool, preparing vehicles and weapons and then a few hours out on the streets, on patrol or special nighttime missions.

Troops say the routine dangers encountered in their job have not dramatically increased in recent weeks and scoff at suggestions the city is getting out of control.

Shootings, they say, are actually less common. But bombs seem more frequent.

They face bombs placed in soda cans, trash piles or the carcasses of freshly killed dogs. The soldiers are sometimes prohibited from buying food from local stores, for fear it might be poisoned. And foot patrols are less common.

"You can't trust the kid coming up to sell you a soda," says Ramon Smith, 29, originally of Fort Gaines, Ga., who works on civil affairs for the battalion, supporting the American-organized council of local Iraqi leaders.

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