The mess in Iraq not playing well with reservists.
The Washington Post reports:

A platoon of Army reservists in Iraq is being investigated for allegedly refusing to carry out a convoy mission its members deemed too dangerous, Army officials said yesterday.

On Wednesday, 19 soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company failed to report for a planned fuel convoy from Tallil Air Base across central Iraq to Taji, a base north of Baghdad, the Army said in a statement issued in Iraq.

An initial report indicated that some of the 19 soldiers (not all) refused to participate in the convoy as directed," the Army statement said. Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers, commander of the Army's 13th Corps Support Command...

The soldiers were concerned about the roadworthiness of their trucks and the lack of a helicopter escort for the mission, according to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who said he had talked with the wives of two of them who live in his district.

The Army statement called the incident "a temporary breakdown in discipline." [What about the 35% of ready reservists that have yet to show up?]

The unit felt that the vehicles they were required to drive weren't safe, both mechanically and in lacking armor to protect the personnel inside," he said. [Must be that damn Kerry voting against the 87 billion.]

In addition, he said, the troops had expected to be protected by attack helicopters, but then were told that the aviation escort was unavailable. [SNAFU]

Military Poll says:

The National Annenberg Election Survey found that 62 percent in the military sample said the administration didn't send an adequate number of troops to Iraq.

And 59 percent said too much of a burden has been put on the National Guard and the reserves when regular forces should have been expanded instead.

Family members were more critical of the administration's Iraq policy than those on active duty.

This critical view comes from a military group that has a more favorable view of President Bush, Iraq, the economy and the nation's direction than Americans in general.

Also:

_Six in 10 of the regular military in the sample said they were properly trained and equipped.

_Only four in 10 of the Guard members and reservists questioned said they were properly trained and equipped. [Hmmm]

Freedom is on the march.

Car bombs killed five U.S. troops in Iraq, the U.S. military said Saturday, the latest in a string of such attacks at the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

[That brings to 25 killed this week, if Im counting correctly.
Green Zone hit for the first time. Maybe they should call it the rose zone, in honor of the president's glasses...]

The Guardian:

Suicide bombers penetrated the coalition's heavily fortified Green Zone in the heart of Baghdad for the first time yesterday, killing 10 people in two blasts that tore through a restaurant and street market.

The bombs were "hand-carried explosives", the military said, and were taken in by two suicide bombers. At least four American security con-tractors were killed. They worked for DynCorp.
Another 20 people were injured, mostly Iraqis, as well as four more Americans.