Such a lovely place.

Via the WSJ Opinion Journal:

"Iraqi civilians fleeing heavy fighting have stunned and delighted hungry US marines in central Iraq by giving them food, as guerrilla attacks continue to disrupt coalition supply lines to the rear," Agence France-Presse reports from central Iraq. Sgt. Kenneth Wilson tells the wire service: "They had slaughtered lambs and chickens and boiled eggs and potatoes for their journey out of the frontlines":

Khairi Ilrekibi, 35, a passenger on one of the buses, which broke down near the marine position, said he could speak for the 20 others on board.

In broken English he told a correspondent travelling with the marines: "We like Americans," adding that no one liked Saddam Hussein because "he was not kind."

The same dispatch quotes Lance Cpl. David Polikowsky, who's been guarding prisoners of war at the camp. Of one group of POWs, mostly conscripts, he recalls: "They told me they wanted to go to America after the war. I said where. They said California. I said why? They said the song Hotel California and they left singing Hotel California."