A New Kind of Soldier

Victor Davis Hanson in National Review Online draws lessons from the Iraq war. Some of them relate to the troops:
“The troops look sometimes like cynical American teenagers but they fight and die like Leathernecks on Okinawa. The Arab street may put on shows of goose-stepping suicide bombers, noisy pajama-clad killers, and shrill, masked assassins, but in real battle against gum-chewing American adolescents with sunglasses these street toughs prove to be little more than toy soldiers.
“By the same token, officers talk and act like a mixture of college professors and professional boxers. Ram-rod straight they brave fire alongside their troops