Proper equipment? Do you mean uparmored humvees? Who the heck thought that the army would need to put armor on recon vehicles or trucks? I know someone who came in with the follow on troops. Yes, they had crappyt humvees. but when he left Iraq more than a year later, the still un-uparmored had last thgrough months of street patrols, time out west, and battle at Najaf and had not a single bullet hole in it. On the other hand, he watched a tank being blow apart by an IEP. How much training did the troops get on IEDs or even RPG? Monday morning quarterbacking. What about next weekend's game? Know how to win that one?