In the spring of 2003, I was covering news from Norway for The Associated Press while the Oslo correspondent was with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Iraq. One of my tasks was to keep an eye on demonstrations against the war in Iraq. Not all of them were peaceful, and these people started throwing bricks, eggs, paint and bottles at the police outside the American embassy. The police responded with pepper spray, nightsticks, horses and biting dogs.