Tired US troops want to go home from Iraq

"I think I had enough. It's time for us to go home," said Private First Class Joe Cruz, 18, from the Second Brigade of the Army's Third Infantry Division in Fallujah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

Cruz, a native of Guam, has been away from his family for nearly one year and said not knowing when he would go home depressed him.

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"When I get depressed, I just write a letter. I write a lot. Writing a letter relieves my stress," said the shy soldier. In letters, he tells his mother he is doing fine.

He is lying.

"I wake up in the middle of the night just to look around. I am always half-asleep," said Cruz, one of 4,000 US soldiers assigned to keep the peace in this conservative Sunni Muslim city, which has often been a flashpoint since US troops shot dead at least 16 civilians during protests in late April.

Graffiti on one of the walls along the main road of the city reads: "God bless the resistance fighters of the City of Mosques."

Sergeant Robert Meadows, one of six doctors at the brigade's compound, said he treats one soldier a day on average for illnesses related to combat fatigue.

"The biggest problem is sleep. Some people just sleep for hours and hours but still don't have any energy to get up," said the 39-year-old doctor from Brooklyn, New York City.

Meadows has seen soldiers suffering from symptoms of combat stress including depression, agitation and short temper and said a majority of them are men in their early 20s.

"The most common symptom is depression. Not knowing when we're going home is the worst part," he said. He has prescribed anti-depressants but said the best treatment is just talking to soldiers.

"I just talk to them and tell them to get some sleep," Meadows said, adding that soldiers can rest for three days under the treatment.

Private First Class Miguel Balderas, 22, said he sleeps inside the compound most of his off-duty time.

"I'm tired. I sleep most of the time," said Balderas from Santa Maria, California.

His friend, Private First Class James Mierop, 20, from Joliet, Illinois, described the mood as grim.

"I think a lot of people here are at the breaking point," said the baby-faced blond.

"I think everybody's had enough. Everybody is just ready to go home. I'm definitely ready to go home," Mierop said.