House Raids in Iraq
                          American troops enter Iraq only to find an insurgency against them.

Answer: Get them before they get you.
Sounds good except for one thing; just about everyone becomes the enemy.
It is true that in some sections of Iraq the citizens did have firepower and would shoot as US troops as they were leaving a house. This was not the norm, however.

A counterinsurgency began in response to the bombings on US vehicles and facilities. Snipers were also a problem for the troops. One way to potentially curtail the unrest was to squash rebellion and put fear into the terrorists by invading homes and humiliating the men of the house.

Most soldiers would report fear and worry on the faces of the Iraqi families whose homes they entered. The men were usually separated from the women during the raids. Sometimes, if the right documentation was not presented, or a man did not live there, or was suspected of anything suspicious, they would be taken away with hoods over their heads and driven to a detention center or a prison. At one point, young men would be rounded up just because they looked like potential fighters.

The citizens grew to abhor the presence of American troops. Insurgency increased. The Iraqi's were bewildered, afraid, and angry now. It was not a good way to “help” the Iraqi’s set up the idea of democracy in a country already riddled with destruction and abuse.

The American soldier was fast becoming part of the nightmare, rather than the solution.