But US leaders are failing BIG TIME with our troops.

''We need to pull these guys out and put some other troops in here who are trained for peacekeeping, because our first impulse is to kill,'' said Sgt. 1st Class Eric Wright of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division.

''My guys question why we are going from warriors to peacekeepers, because the belief in what was told to us was that we would fight and win and go home and that someone else would do this (peacekeeping),'' he said.

''Little kids wave at us and their parents slap them in the back of the head and make them stop,'' said Spc. Anthony Combs of Hyden, Ky. ''It makes me feel like I wasted my time over here and they don't appreciate what we did.''

''We're in this murky situation where it's not really combat, but it is in some ways, and that's difficult,'' said 1st Lt. Eric Hooper, the executive officer. Some days the men arrest looters, and on others, they fight guerrillas. Often the two are hard to distinguish.