Iraqi town wants Americans out

"Even the dead are taken by wheelbarrow," added Mohammed Hussein, 30, at his cucumber stall.

Akram Mushaan, 45, said the war has hurt business, as customers are few and many can't afford to pay. Rather than let his melons spoil, he gives them away, he said, flipping through a book filled with IOUs.

"What did we do to have all this suffering?" asked Ramsey Abdullah Hindi, 60, sitting outside a tea shop. Ignoring U.S. troops within earshot, he said Iraqis were justified to attack them. "They have a right to fight against the Americans because of their religion and the bad treatment. We will stand until the last," he said somberly.

Buchanan pressed on with the patrol, all too familiar with the gripes. "Everything's our fault. I understand that," he said.

Tap into American money
City officials, too, are adamant that U.S. troops leave Hit. But many -- corrupt and protected by suspected ties with insurgents -- are using their positions to tap into American money as long as they can, U.S. officials say.

"The city council survives because they work on issues that affect everyone, like water. Insurgents need water, too," explained Lilly, a Marine reservist and a financial analyst in Detroit. "If I want to say something to the insurgents, I just say it to the city council. I know they'll get the word."

In an abandoned classroom lined with dusty books and plaster models of body organs, Lilly sits at the head of a table, going through a stack of reconstruction proposals as Hit officials look on.

"We're not going to purchase ambulances because there's no phone system. No one can call," he said. "We're not going to repair the gas station because it had a weapons cache." Next he scolded Hit's water manager, Usama Abdul Rahman Jameel, for trying to get $4,000 for a $2,000 water project.

"It's my lucky day," Jameel replied sarcastically.

"He's corrupt, but at least he's honest about it," Lilly said later of Jameel. "He's like, 'Yeah, I'm taking as much as I can off you.' "

Soon after the city officials left, a mortar round pounded Lilly's compound. He threw on his body armor, grabbed his rifle and rushed to the roof. Lilly, an Arabic speaker and Muslim known around Hit as "Abdul Rahman," is disconcerted by how often he takes fire. "I'm the guy doing the good stuff and I get shot at all the time!" he said later in his office, ignoring more mortar blasts. "Nobody is pro-American in this city. They either tolerate us or all-out hate us."

Softer tactics
In an effort to win cooperation, Graves has tried softer tactics. Raids are still frequent -- Graves has sent 130 people from Hit to prison -- but his soldiers avoid using stun grenades, after a city official complained that they made him afraid to make love to his wife at night.

Lilly and other U.S. officers said they were increasingly persuaded that U.S. forces could withdraw outside the city with little military impact, even with only a rudimentary local government and Iraqi security force in Hit. While the Iraqi army contingent in Hit has shrunk to about 400 men, 60 percent of its strength, police officers recruited from outlying tribes are undergoing training.

"If we do leave, the city will be a lot better and they'll build it a lot better," Lilly said.

Pulling out U.S. forces would also mean reopening the Hit bridge to civilian traffic. American troops have held the bridge for more than a year since insurgents attacked it with a car bomb. "We don't really gain anything from it," said Maj. Michael Fadden, of Dayton, Ohio, the battalion's operations officer.

Added another U.S. officer, "If the insurgents want to blow up the bridge, damn it, let them!"

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