I'm a former Armor officer and I qualified on the M1. Yes, any tracked vehicle can be overcome and it's pretty easy to do, especially if the vehicle is sort of wandering about without an infantry escort which is standard combined arms doctrine. If the grunts were nearby this should not have happened at all. No tank should be wandering about on it's own without benefit of a "wing man" tank or infantry escort (mounted or not). No tank should be wandering about without being on a specific mission, even if that's a patrol. Tanks not on missions should be in a "hull down defilade" laager with full perimeter security.
That's right, and the armor is there to back up the ground troops, not as some kind of artillery platform.
Thanks on the "about page" stuff. My sense of humor is very strange, I am told, by my wife and children!
I am not qualified on the M1 in any way. My experience with war was long ago.
The combined arms doctrine you explain so clearly seems to me to cover all the bases. It is how I remember things were organized in Viet Nam. I have read Korean War materials describing the same organization. The German armor in WW2 would withdraw if their infantry were separated from them. In the beginning of WW2 the Russians operated tanks and infantry separately, perhaps by accident while under orders to keep advancing no matter what. In any case the combined arms doctrine you describe, if followed, just has to work.
I don't like my people being put into urban combat in Iraq. The equipment and tactics put the troops in excessive danger. Looking for alternatives I find Israeli urban combat technique interesting.
The lads should not be exposed while in vehicles to the effects of directional mines, buried mines, and even RPGs. This last is not impossible with correct armor. The Israelis have a 10 or 15 ton spaced armor system to augment the M113, for instance. Have to redo the suspension, etc. Explosive Reactive Armor is long overdue. (The Russians are good at this, better than the Israelis as I see it.)
I don't think it is necessary to take casualties to reduce a place like Falujah. A tight investment, destruction of utilities and communications, especially water, cutting off all supplies, encouragement of individual "rallying", and responding to small arms fire with artillery sounds about right. Give them a month or two to consider the situation.
Heavy APCs, tanks with all around armor, armored bulldozers, close range heavy artillery, fuel-air explosives, etc. are useful also.