TACTICS THAT HARKEN BACK TO VIET-NAM. There is no word for my level of disgust for those adults who involve their children in acts such as this.

"There is an increased danger," said Army Spec. Eric Harvey of Rochester. Until two days ago, Harvey was happy to accept soft drinks from boys hanging around his guard post outside the headquarters of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which is running Iraq. On Wednesday, though, soldiers were ordered to stop doing so because some cans contained grenades.

Harvey, who has been in Baghdad since April, has witnessed all manner of sinister strikes. While driving down a street recently in a convoy, he watched as a boy waved cheerfully at soldiers with his right hand, then tossed a grenade into the road with his left.

It's another disadvantage the Army has in these types of missions versus full on combat.

In combat US doctrine is offensive in nature. We seize the initiative and never let it go.

Among the most effective aspects of US warfighting doctrine is the speed with which we fight and the lethality we bring to bear. We are never in one place for very long, always pushing forward to some objective and when dealing with enemy forces we have the firepower to force them to capitulate or die.

Contrast that to the static nature of the current mission which eliminates the speed advantage, and the lack of defined enemy forces at which to direct all that lethality.

We therefore find ourselves in an inherently defensive situation.

And that is much more dangerous.

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