By Malini Bawa

I spent part of last week at COP Callahan, a small U.S. Army outpost on the edge of Sadr City, home to the 1-68 Silver Lions.

They set up shop in an abandoned shopping mall, with chipped marble staircases and crumbling escalators.

It’s not all rubble and ruins. The areas where the soldiers live and work are fairly clean and comfortable. But they’re definitely roughing it, compared to the relative luxury of life on a large base.