for later reading
"COLOR FROM THE FRONT" [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
An embed in the rough Najaf/Karbala area shares this with me:
"I was out looking at some soldiers and one of them was sharing some cookies he had just received in the mail. A photographer walked over to him and asked in a heavy French accent for a cookie. The soldier glanced up and told him no cookies for anyone from France.
The photographer claimed he was half Italian. Without missing a beat the soldier broke a cookie in half and handed it over."