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Editor's note: Reporter Hal Bernton and photographer Thomas James Hurst have returned from a month in Iraq, reporting on the U.S. military campaign as well as the lives of Iraqi civilians.

		Water and life slowly return to the vast wetlands of Iraq Over the past half-century, most of the Marsh Arabs were uprooted as the Iraqi government drained and diked nearly 90 percent of the marshland in what international observers rank as a human tragedy and environmental disaster of global importance.

Former Seattle man says he'll stay in Iraq despite danger
Al-Emeri, 44, is an expatriate who came home. The Iraqi Army veteran and rebel, who once had a price on his head, is starting over — again — after a dozen years away from Iraq, eight of which he lived in the Seattle area.

Grim struggle to save lives inside ragged Baghdad ER
"We need more of everything," says one doctor. "But the most important thing we need here is humanity."

Amid Baghdad's gridlock, auto dealer is on easy street
A thousand entrepreneurs are cashing in on Baghdad's cultural boom in these heady economic days following the ouster of this nation's former dictator.

Tension tests Stryker troops
The driver of the battered red pickup ignored the warning cry to halt as he barreled toward the highway checkpoint. A young soldier raised his gun and had to make a choice: Shoot or risk a possible suicide attack.

Army officer struggles to win trust of Iraqi imam wary of U.S. motives
U.S. soldiers can go and come almost anywhere they please, but there is one place in this small town they do not enter.

Engineers' mission: detect and disarm
The explosion comes at midmorning, a dull boom that reverberates through the fog that hangs over this small U.S. Army base. It is the sound of an IED — one of the infamous improvised explosive devices that have claimed the lives of so many American soldiers here in Iraq.

Searches produce weapons, provoke hatred
Uninvited, the Americans head inside, poking through cabinets, closets and shelves, and peering beneath the beds. Others circle outside, searching mud-block barns and corrals.

Creating order is half the battle
Bravo Company's just over 100 soldiers are trained for combat duties such as seizing and then safely exploding ordnance. But in the six months since arriving here, the soldiers' job also has required a great deal of diplomacy.

'90 days... and counting down'
BALAD, Iraq - Rushing across central Iraq in a low-flying Chinook helicopter, Sgt. Rachel Green perches at the edge of an open tail ramp, a finger near the trigger of her M-60 machine gun. ...

In Iraq, a salute to Christmas
BALAD, Iraq - Thomas James Hurst are spending a month in Iraq, reporting on the U.S. military campaign as well as the lives of Iraqi civilians. Today's dispatch is from an air base north of Baghdad.

TALK TO US

After a month in Iraq, reporter Hal Bernton returned to Seattle and answered questions in a live Q & A.

	Read the questions and answers

BLOG: IRAQ DISPATCHES

"I’m learning about bureaucracy in post-war Iraq. People work but perhaps not as hard as they once did. At least not at the Ministry of Health."

— Hal Bernton

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