American troops in Iraq in 2003 were fighting a "different" kind of war. In previous altercations troops were trained to know their enemy. During WW2 nazi Germany and the Japanese responsible for the bombing on Pearl Harbor were definite enemies of the United States.
In the summer of 2003, this was no longer the case. Insurgents often looked like regular civilians. Women and children were often used as decoys or suicide bombers to detonate around troops. Cars driving in front of or too close to military areas left military personnel on edge because too often they would be shot at by passers by. Their training was that there was no training. Troops were told if it looks like the enemy...shoot it. More times than not their hunches on who exactly the enemy is, was incorrect.
Hundreds, even thousands of Iraqi men, women and children were taken out of their homes and placed into prisons much like Abu Ghraib and interrogated for information regarding the insurgents, al Qaeda and the Taliban. Many times their interrogations only led military personnel back to square one.
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