So you need to push through to get out of the kill zone in order to either escape or counter-attack. And if you can't get out of the kill zone quickly, you need to counter-attack immediately. That is surely dangerous but it at least seizes the initiative and provides hope of getting out of the kill zone. You need well-trained troops for this, but we have well-trained troops.
Nearly two years ago, I read that we had decided to have our troops move slowly in convoy instead of racing down the road with orders to stop and fight in order to make an ambush an opportunity for our superior training and firepower to really punish the enemy. We'd essentially decided on the counter-attack method of escaping the kill zone instead of moving out of the kill zone.
Strategypage writes that we are giving ambush driving lessons to our troops:
The U.S. Army and Marine Corps have set up "combat driving" schools to show troops how to handle hummers and armored vehicles under combat conditions. In the past, military drivers were taught to proceed slowly, and in a disciplined manner, when under fire. The reality of Iraq, and now Afghanistan, quickly saw a new form of driving develop. Now speed and agility was paramount, in order to avoid ambush or roadside bombs. This has led to an increase in vehicle accidents, and the combat driving courses are the response to that.
Clearly, when the ambushes are mechanical with IEDs rather than direct fire ambushes, there is nobody to fight at the kill zone so it makes no sense to stay and "fight" when the "enemy" might just be another IED at the kill zone. So it is best to get out of the kill zone.
This is just another indication of how the enemy in Iraq is more of a terror campaign than anything you'd call an insurgency despite what the global Left believes about the so-called "resistance.". They are too weak to routinely take on our troops and rely on mostly paying poor Iraqis to place IEDs to kill our troops. That's no way to win a war. And they aren't.
