Armor Talk From the Front

There has recently been a great deal of controversy about the amount of adequate armor being sent to our troops in Iraq, with the likes of Senator Joseph Biden raising concerns.

Michael Yon also shed some light on the issue, from a different perspective - on the ground in Iraq:

There is furious debate about armored vehicles in Iraq. There was a time when our own forces were needlessly exposed and being killed by even small attacks. And so we armored up like turtles which greatly helped. But at a cost. Our vehicles break down more, and our humvees have gone from being super-agile to tortoise-like contraptions that get stuck every chance. In this environment, truly out in the boonies, agility, firepower and other qualities often far outweigh the heavy metal. Fact is, there is still a place for unarmored agility.

and

One armored vehicle was going with us. Although the armor on a Scimitar will stop bullets, its armor will not stop an EFP any more than a turtle shell will stop a canon ball. There is no armor in the American or British militaries that can stop an EFP. The armor can actually worsen the EFP strike because the armor will fragment and slice flesh.

I suppose there are always two sides to a coin.

Update: Just saw this gem of a comment by Senator Biden: "The V-shaped Thing."

Update: The tank at NRO has more on ignorance of military hardware.