WAR

"What's it like there?" It's the question we get asked most often by people who haven't been to Baghdad, followed closely by, "Do you live in the Green Zone?" The answer to that one is easy: No. The answer to the first is more difficult. Baghdad, like any big city, is a porridge of ugliness, beauty, charm, humor, scowls, color and grayness, but with a twist: It is under military occupation, and signs of U.S. and Iraq security forces are everywhere.

Traumatic brain injuries, one of the signature injuries of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, can be linked to such long-term problems as seizures, aggression and dementia reminiscent of Alzheimer's disease, according to an Institute of Medicine report released Thursday. Even mild brain injuries, the report found, appear associated with some long-term problems. The report is a wake-up call, said Dr.

Gently admonishing President Bush, the nation's newly retired chief intelligence analyst suggested that the Iraq war was as much the failure of policymakers as it was the flawed intelligence on which they relied. Bush told ABC News last week that his biggest regret was "the intelligence failure in Iraq." "I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess," he said. Thomas Fingar, until this week the deputy director of national intelligence for analysis, declined to directly address the president's swipe.

Do military officers have the right to publicly voice dissent about their commander in chief and U.S. war policy? That question highlighted last week's pretrial hearing at Ft. Lewis Army base near Seattle for 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the nation's first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq. Watada faces a court-martial and six years in prison for failing to deploy with his Stryker Brigade last year and for making four public statements criticizing President Bush and the Iraq war.

By the time the Vietnam war ended in 1975, it had become America's longest war, shadowed the legacies of four presidents, killed 58,000 Americans along with many thousands more Vietnamese, and cost the U.S. more than $660 billion in today's dollars.

The day I met with two Iraq war vets at a Hollywood theater was even bloodier than most in Iraq. Two car bombs at a market killed 88 Iraqis Monday and wounded 168. Between Friday and Monday, 30 American troops were also killed. Sean Huze, a vet, actor and playwright, can't help himself. He keeps checking the Internet for the latest, and every time he does, he sees the troop casualty count rise.

Emboldened by the Democratic takeover of Congress and shrinking public support for the Iraq war, antiwar groups are planning what they hope will be a massive protest Saturday on the National Mall. Similar events are planned in dozens of cities around the country, with some of the largest expected in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Organizers said they aim to put pressure on both the White House and Congress to end the war. "The message will be 'Mr. President, bring our troops home,' " said Rep.

American officials, regional leaders and residents are increasingly worried that this northern oil-rich city could develop into a third front in the country's civil war just as additional U.S. troops arrive in Baghdad and Al Anbar province as reinforcements for battles there. Al Qaeda-linked fighters recently have surfaced here, launching a wave of lethal attacks, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

When the Bush administration unveils its annual spending request today, it is expected to ask for a defense budget of $481 billion -- near historic highs, even when adjusted for inflation. It will also ask for additional funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, taking the cost of those wars this year to close to $165 billion, and will present estimates for next year's costs that would push war spending above the total cost of the Vietnam War.

THE soldier stands in his living room eyeing all the cool soldier stuff he never got to use in a real fight. Like the helmet with not a single ding and the sleek body armor with not a scuff. The gear piles high on the carpet. First Lt. Ehren Watada is giving it all back and, out of courtesy, packing it up. The Army had treated him with the utmost respect until the moment it decided to court-martial him. It was nothing personal. The Army does what it has to do.