DURING FEBRUARY and into March, the CPA's house of cards rose higher, only to eventually collapse from the weight of angry sectarian Iraqis, Coalition arrogance, and corruption that plagued all sides. By mid-March, Muqtada al-Sadr had started using his inflammatory newspaper, al-Hawza, to energize a huge slice of Iraqi men against the occupation, and the U.S.-led effort to stabilize Iraq had begun to skid.

We left the country in early April, when we were told by a reliable source that some Iraqis had targeted us for assassination. (As it happened, we got out on the exact day Fallujah and Sadr City exploded into armed conflict against the Coalition.) During our months in Iraq, Marla Ruzicka, of CIVIC, became a friend of ours, and long after we were gone she continued to be a major force for good in a place where so much was bad. Tragically, Marla's work came to an end in April 2005, when she was killed by a suicide bomber during a car trip near the Baghdad airport.

As for our pal Sky, things didn't get any better. He kept doing steroids, kept hating the Army, and kept his eyes on the prize of going home to marry his fiancée. "I just want to kick back in my parents' basement, smoke a bowl, put on a DVD, and space out," Sky told us. "This is the worst decision I ever made. You know how some people are just not supposed to be in the Army?"

"Yeah," I said. "Like me."

"Well, that's me a hundred percent, too, man. But it was too late once I realized it."

This gave Jeff and me an idea. Another friend of ours, a stylish Brit named Inigo Gilmore, was shooting a documentary about life in occupied Baghdad. We decided he should film an interview with Sky, who was a perfect example of a hapless soldier trapped in a war he didn't want to fight.

A few days later, the interview took place, with Sky providing an impassioned hourlong rant about how the Army had duped him and how his life was hell in half a dozen different ways. Cradling his M-16, Sky issued his cry for help on camera: I told many people I've been hearing voices in my head, trying to get them to take me seriously. But these people didn't take me seriously, and here I am in Iraq...

Later, Jeff and I watched the footage and my stomach dropped. It was horrible, sad. I'd never really seen despair before. From the way Sky talked about killing himself, I could actually see him doing it. And he still had a year to go.