Major Brian Wirtz took up his post as the lead adviser to the Iraqi Army’s 2-2 battalion in October after shrapnel from a booby-trapped rocket launcher gouged out his predecessor’s eye and ripped the legs off an Iraqi lieutenant-colonel.

For Major Wirtz, 33, it meant leaving the relative safety of a giant US military base to live in Fallujah.

Compared with past wars, American losses in Iraq are small. There were 58,000 Americans killed in the Vietnam War and 36,000 in the Korean conflict. Yet the American public seems far more unnerved by Iraq’s ugliness than do the troops on the ground.

General James Conway, the head of the Marines, expressed concern last week that the US public would not give the military the time it needs in Iraq to stabilise the country. “I fear there are two timelines out there,” General Conway told a meeting of about 2,500 troops. “One is how long it’s going to take us to do the job. One is how long the country is going to allow us to do the job. And they’re not synching up.”

When Major Wirtz took up his assignment, he knew that he was stepping into the lion’s den. But he believed in his mission.

On November 18, a sniper fired a 7.62mm bullet dead on into his Kevlar vest. The bullet should have torn through the metal plates but instead simply punched a giant hole in his protective vest.

The major did not take off a day from work. A religious man, Major Wirtz prayed almost every day. Before meals, he shut his eyes and whispered a blessing. He never made any mention about what happened. The only reminder of the incident was the protective vest with its giant hole and rattling bits of shrapnel. “Every team here has been through some tough situations,” he said.

His Marines also shrugged off the alarm over the steadily rising number of dead Americans in Iraq. “If we didn’t come here, they (al-Qaeda) would be striking around the world,” said Gunnery Sergeant Jason Donnelly, 31.

Sergeant Austin Moore, 23, wondered why people back home didn’t understand what they were doing. “It’s a warzone,” he said.

“We’re over here in a fight and people back home keep [publicising] the death toll.”

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