The landscape was the color of sand-weathered bone, and though the sky was cloudless blue, it was obscured by the dust kicked up from the column of vehicles headed up Route 4 where it forked northeast toward Baqubah. Behind them was Route 2, which led all the way back to Baghdad. Looking out the window of the Humvee, Corporal Camaro Espinoza saw nothing but billowing clouds of sandy grit.