Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
...blah blah blah
"...during the conduct of his 2002-2003 thesis research..."
blah blah blah...
The listed information is invalidated by its date, and invalidates any conclusions drawn from it- there was little reason to worry about this in 2002-2003. I deployed in JAN 04, and given the choice between Up-Armored HMMVWs and soft skins, we chose softskins- they were more flexible, easier to mount/dismount, offered better visibility, etc, etc. My brigade suffered no casualties to IEDs during its previous deployment to Afghanistan (as best I can recall), and our only IED casualties in Iraq were to dismounted troops. I realize that this is an anecdote and not representative. It does show, however, that there was contrary information that inhibited the decisions that appear so obvious in hindsight.