And if Mookie keeps bouncing back like that, the Iraqi troops can keep smacking him down.... I don't imagine Mookie's folks are all that keen on being the next round of cannon fodder, though.
In footage of the fighting that I saw, there were quite a few fat old men who didn't look like they were all that comfortable with their weapons.
At the same time that troops gain seasoning, they also lose veterans to attrition. Peace becomes more attractive, when the opposition proves that they have grown stronger while you have grown weaker.
Michael Frazier