Coalition forces
Alan Brain at the Command Post points out a couple items of interest.

Diggers tough and focused:

THE young Digger aimed his M-16 carbine at the driver.

It wasn't his manner, and certainly not his weapon, that told us he was Australian.

Like his forefathers in the African desert and on the Kokoda Track in World War II, he was doing something no US soldier would ever do ? he was wearing shorts.
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The Australians have a tough reputation among drivers plying the long road between Amman in Jordan and Syria. "Bastards," one translator said.

We tried to coax our drivers back through the checkpoint so we could snap a photograph. "If I try, I will go back to Amman in a box," one said.

And US soldiers' wives fight bitter battle of their own points out a longstanding disgrace:

As US troops battle remnants of Iraq's fallen regime, their wives are locked in a bitter struggle against money woes that have forced some to resort to charity handouts to survive.

Low military salaries and the high cost of living in parts of the United States means that families of many of the lower ranking US troops fighting in Iraq live a hand to mouth existence.

"I know several wives of Marines with small children who line up at churches for grocery handouts which are the only way they can survive the month and feed and cloth the baby," said military wife, Natalie Castro, 19.
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Low ranking privates and corporals - they make up 60 per cent of the US Marine Corps - take home only around $US800 ($A1,323) dollars a month after tax, or $US9,600 ($A15,881) dollars annually.

The US Census Bureau classifies a family of three as poor if its cash income is less than $US14,128 ($A23,371) dollars a year, or $US11,569 ($A19,138) dollars for a married couple.
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"My husband and most of his friends all have second jobs or work whenever they can just to survive..."