"Attention, attention, attention, there has been an indirect fire attack," says a pleasant woman's voice, as if announcing the 8:20 Southwest flight into BWI instead of a potentially deadly rocket or mortar attack.

... residents here are known as "Fobbits," residents of a Forward Operating Base or FOB. They resemble the hobbits of fiction, reluctant to venture far from their comfortable and familiar burrows.

"Biggest threat here is gaining weight," huffed a beefy airman.

Once a week the command opens an Iraqi bazaar where real Iraqis come to sell souvenirs and crafts. A large sign outside proclaims "No Bargaining," thus prohibiting the social interaction integral to a Middle East marketplace.

Down at the cement factory, operations are supervised by a demonstrative young Turkish woman who favors skin-tight jeans, cowboy boots and strategically tight white blouses. Soldiers try to find an excuse to drop by.

... rising powers ... are creating a strategically tight market for the rest of the world.

"I'd like to think I'm a strategically tight player, but I'm going to keep people guessing, at least for a while."

... those kind of strategically tight and faded jeans that made men glad to be alive.

Having ascended to the pop stratosphere with a Top 40 anthem and strategically tight, white underwear, Wahlberg legitimized his pop-icon status by appearing in one of the best American films of the last 10 years.