I originally thought about this.
But you could still have had a scene where there is a terrified child that is apparently dying, giving the expressions as described in the book. It is possible to do that in such a way as to it tastefully and not have lots of blood as part of the scene.
But even more important was the description by Lawrence that it was not easy to defeat this Turkish column. There were some positions that were very well defended, and it was unclear if they would be defeated and and allow the advance on Damascus.
Where the movie strays is that Lawrence says that he did have to fight one of the two columns, and that he chose to go around the column of 4 thousand Turkish soldiers and take on the column of 2 thousand soldiers.
The key point from my perspective is that unless you read both the previous several chapter and the chapter where the No Prisoners action takes place. But in the previous chapter, Lawrence said that the Howeitat did not take prisoners. So the book makes for some gray lines the movie does not depict...
The chapters in question are only a few pages long each. It is just how the book is written.
It is probably an important literary work, as the events in the book helped to shape the Middle East as we know it today, to some extent. So this book and the other one by Lawrence might be work the time spent reading...
June 23, 2006, 2:42PM
HOUSTON SOLDIER
Three slain troops were left behind to guard bridge, military says
Inquiry to focus on why they were alone, a possible protocol violation
Associated Press
TIKRIT, IRAQ - Two missing soldiers whose mutilated bodies were found after a massive search had been left alone at a checkpoint near Baghdad while other vehicles in their patrol inspected traffic, a military spokesman said Thursday.
Soon after Pfc. Kristian Menchaca of Houston and another private vanished and another soldier was killed last Friday, one Iraqi told reporters that insurgents had managed to separate a three-Humvee convoy by opening fire and forcing two of the vehicles to give chase.
Other Iraqis told reporters that the vehicle carrying Menchaca and his two companions had fallen behind the convoy and was attacked by insurgents.
Those reports now appear to be wrong, said Lt. Col. Michelle Martin-Hing, a U.S. spokeswoman in Tikrit.
Menchaca and the two other soldiers had been left with one Humvee to guard a hydraulic bridge at a Euphrates River canal about 12 miles south of Baghdad. When the Humvee was attacked by insurgents, others in the unit could not see the vehicle and were checking on their colleagues by radio, Martin-Hing said.
She said a focus of the investigation will be to determine why the three-man team had been left at the canal. Army protocols are designed to prevent such attacks.
"The investigation is going to look at whether proper procedures were followed," Martin-Hing said.
The bodies of Menchaca, 23, and Pfc. Thomas Tucker, 25, of Oregon were found late Monday in Yusufiya, a few miles from the attack scene, during a search by about 8,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops.
The bodies were sent to Dover Air Base in Delaware for DNA testing. The body of the third soldier, Spc. David Babineau, 25, was found Friday at the scene of the attack.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3994673.html