A recent discussion of "Clusterfuck" noted that one of its definitions included too many people standing too closely together, making an attractive target.

Turns out, per aswatAlIraq, this might be a good rule for equipment as well:

Baghdad, May 17, (VOI) – A U.S. helicopter was destroyed, while damage was reported to nine others in an artillery attack on Sunday on the Taji Camp, north of Baghdad, a source close to the Multi-National Force in Iraq (MNF) said.

"The ten helicopters were landed at the camp," the source, who requested his name not be mentioned, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) today.

According to the source, an official spokesman for the U.S. defense department confirmed the attack today.This is the first time for the U.S. army to announce the destruction of some of its helicopters, which were landed at one of its bases, as a result of a missile or artillery attack since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Emphasis added. "Which were landed" is a clunky and/or evasive way to avoid saying that a whole lot of helicopters have been destroyed in flight.

Anybody still thinking that when Tet the final uprising comes and the need to Get Out of Dodge is intense and immediate, that they can just hop on the nearest chopper a la the Saigon Embassy Roof scenario of recent memory, might want to think again. And go check the condition, gas supply, and tire wear on the nearest uparmored Humvee.

Oh, and don't forget the water bottles. It can get a little warm on that road to Kuwait. What was it they called it the last time an invading army used it to pull their forces out in a full-scale retreat...hmm, Highway of Death I believe was the term. But I'm sure nobody will shoot at us as we're leaving, us being the good guys and all.

(h/t to Holden Caulfield at the House of Gray.)

UPDATE on related matters: Anybody who went for their daily read (you do read daily don't you?) at Juan Cole's place yesterday and noted it was goofed up...it's fixed now. Seems he was doing a format change and as is not unusual in such situations, had some tweaking to do to get it to run right.

All fixed now and very nice looking. If you have any trouble reading it scroll down to the top entry of yesterday and he has some suggestions for changes, both for IE and Firefox.

Not that the news has gotten any better mind you...it seems the helicopter strike noted above was some distance from being the worst news for a whole lot of people yesterday. Or their survivors anyway.