Soldiers get ready for the mission in front of their bulky combat vehicles as this northern Iraqi city, with its crumbling minarets, stretches out in the distance under brooding clouds. They chew and spit tobacco, tell jokes and slap each other on the back and pray deep inside they will not stumble on a roadside bomb, or worse, get hit by a suicide car bomber. "People out there are scared, they are used to being dominated and ruled, so they do not know how to stand up for themselves and that's what we are going to help them do," Lieutenant Rich Hagen tells his men from the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment's Bravo Company.
With a week left to the elections, US soldiers in this turbulent city have stepped up neighbourhood patrols in an effort to assure people that they are in control of the security situation and that it is safe enough to go out and vote.
Soldiers will play a significant role in securing polling sites here given the absence of an adequate police force and the infancy of Iraq's army.
They have also turned into election workers of sorts, handing out leaflets while officers occasionally chat with residents about the merits of the vote.
Some soldiers say they do not mind motivating people to vote if it is going to help reduce violence and attacks against them by bringing a government that would take more control of the security situation.
Others are more focused on the importance of having an allied government that would allow America to fight the global war on terror on Iraqi soil for as long as it takes. A few feel it is not their business to bring democracy to Iraqis and that it is time to pack up and go home.
Mosul is among the areas least prepared to hold elections and most in this Sunni Muslim city say they will not vote - either because they are afraid of the insurgents or know very little about the whole process, which involves coalition and party lists rather than individual candidates.
On a recent patrol, dozens of US soldiers dart out of their Strykers and maneuver their way into one of the city's poorest and most dangerous neighbourhoods.
They are followed by a handful of thin Iraqi soldiers walking hesitantly and almost sinking in their oversized helmets and bullet-proof vests.
Soldiers walk past heaps of mouldering garbage, give way to crossing chickens and skip over streams of raw sewage mixed in with blood.
Some families have slaughtered cows or sheep in front of their homes to celebrate the Muslim feast of Eid Al-Adha.
US soldiers barge into homes searching for weapons amid the bewilderment of residents.
"I swear I do not have a single bullet in my house," a woman in her 70s tells First Sergeant Luis Perez, 23.
His comrades, stone-faced, begin silently handing out leaflets outside.
"Tell terrorists enough is enough, vote on January 30," says one.
Perez's calf is disfigured and he has a crack in the skull and tiny pieces of shrapnel wedged under his cheeks and on the back of his neck after a mortar shell exploded in front of him about two months ago.
He was flown to Germany for treatment and was booked to go back home, but decided to come back to Iraq.
"I would rather fight the battle (against terrorists) here than in my backyard," says the California-native of Cuban descent.
His tour of duty ends in October but he feels America will be in Iraq for a long time after the elections despite rumblings back home about whether the transitional government that emerges after January 30 would ask Washington to begin pulling its soldiers out. "I want to make sure the (Iraqi) government has a stance against terrorism," says Specialist Craig Kilian, 26, from Washington state.
"This is the battleground for terrorism, we are travelling here, they (terrorists) are travelling here."
He cuts off to shout at reluctant Iraqi soldiers to cover their rear flank as they move forward.
"They are not into soldiering the whole time," he explains.
The US government has said it would remain in Iraq as long is it takes to train and form a capable local security force.
"The elections could be a turning point for them and possibly us," says Specialist Patrick Miller, 21, hopefully.
But the turning point for a few other soldiers has come already.
"When we ended the search for weapons of mass destruction, that's the day I decided we did not need to be here," said a 19-year-old, who did not wish to be identified.
"Iraqis are not ready to fight for their country. I am not willing to pay the price."
Over the past month 19 US soldiers have died in Mosul including 14 in a suicide attack on a military base dining facility on December 21.
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