ALL THE SAME MISSION:

U.S. Troops Are Relieved to Be Greeted With Smiles (Barbara Demick, January 11, 2005, LA Times)

Hanging out the back of an open truck, his video camera rolling, Capt. Jay Delarosa noted with delight how people emerged with enthusiastic waves to welcome the Marines to their devastated city.

"People sure are nice here," he said a little later. "Not like Iraq."

With the Pentagon's $5.6-million-a-day relief operation on behalf of tsunami victims now in full swing, almost everything about it tends to remind the U.S. military personnel here that this isn't Iraq.

The troops can move around freely, without body armor or even guns. Their mission meets with the world's overwhelming approval.

They are working side by side with the United Nations and 11 other countries — even France, a leading critic of the Iraq war — as the scope of the tragedy proves a unifying force.

Although this is one of the most devoutly Muslim parts of Indonesia, where public sentiment runs strongly against the Bush administration and the Iraq war, many people here seem thrilled by the American presence.