The New York Times has a superb article today about the 'Magnificent Bastards', a Marine company that may have suffered the highest rate of loss of any in the war so far:
Marines From Iraq Sound Off About Want of Armor and Men
"Recalls Captain Royer: "I'm thinking we have our most precious resource engaged in combat, and certainly the wealth of our nation can provide young, selfless men with what they need to accomplish their mission. That's an erudite way of putting it. I have a much more guttural response that I won't give you."
-Some telling things in the article were the insufficiency of the hillbilly armor and the company's realization that many of the deaths and injuries could have been prevented with commercially available armor, the commander's relief after he complained and took pictures of the destroyed HMMWVs, the fact that they were so short-handed they had to resort to cardboard cutouts of Marines, and that a unit over twice their size took over their area after they departed. [from OpTruth.org]
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