The patrol that haunts me wasn't in Baghdad

I KNOW THE LOOK of an armed patrol. I've seen it in Baghdad, in Syria - in streets where fear ruled and peace was fragile. I never expected to see that same look on the subway in our own capital.

- ERIC CHASTAIN GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

SOLDIERS at Dupont Circle in Washington during a protest Aug. 16. They are part of a controversial deployment that continues.

Traveling from my home in Northeast D.C. to Dupont Circle, I passed several pairs of National Guard soldiers in full gear-at stations, on trains and patrolling sidewalks. Some carried sidearms. One caught me looking and waved with an antagonistic grin. I stopped, showed him my military ID and spoke with him. We talked briefly about what it means to be a professional in uniform, about how the Army is judged not only by its strength but by its restraint.

I reminded him that the most important weapon a soldier carries in a city like this isn't on his hipit's the trust of the people around him. He nodded politely, but as I walked away I wondered how much that message could stick when the mission itself pushes these young men and women into roles they were never trained for.

Dupont Circle isn't some remote corner of Washington. It's a hub-lined with embassies, think tanks, coffee shops, bookstores and crowded sidewalks. On any given day, you'll find students debating politics over lattes, diplomats heading to meetings and activists gathering in the park that anchors the neighborhood. It's a crossroads of international ideas and local community life. To see armed soldiers patrolling there is to see force imposed on a place built for conversation, exchange and civic trust.