Baghdad Diaries  One womans two-year adventure in Iraqs Green
Zone  But in the months that passed after Padberg saw Iraq as an
opportunity for "adventure" and "challenge," the country was
transformed. The initial welcome that greeted U.S. troops in
March 2003 had expired, and sporadic attacks by insurgents had
become a daily occurrence. A year after the invasion, insurgents
ambushed four security contractors in Fallouja. In a scene
reminiscent of Somalia 10 years before, enraged Iraqis dragged
the burning bodies of the Americans from their smoking vehicles
and strung them up on a nearby bridge.  Things worsened the
following month, when photographs taken by U.S. soldiers inside
Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison were beamed to television screens
around the world. They depicted smiling GIs posing next to naked
Iraqi detainees stacked like cordwood, or chained to their cells
with women's underwear covering their faces.  By June 1, when
Padberg and her 24-year-old Iraqi-American associate flew from
Kuwait City to Baghd