"He shouldn't have been a terrorist"

DIYALA PROVINCE, Iraq - "The kids will cry," the interpreter said glumly.

I see it during almost every arrest - fear as naked as the cracked concrete floors where the families of the condemned sleep head to toe on ragged blankets.

Dad is patted down and put in plastic cuffs as young children cling to mom's leg, frightened to peer out at the armed Iraqis and Americans searching the house. It kills me.

I don't feel bad for the detainee, but seeing the toddlers, snot running down their noses, tears in their eyes, uncomprehending - it brings home the stakes. Men are often the only breadwinners in Iraqi families and women in the house usually look at the floor, shamefaced, wondering how they will feed the children and elderly relatives (it's common for large extended families to live under one roof).

The lieutenant's response to the interpreter sounds cold, but he has a point, especially where we are - a collection of low-slung mud-brick hovels where three booby-trapped houses have exploded, leaving several soldiers, the lieutenant's friends, seriously injured:

"Well, he shouldn't have been a terrorist."