The Bridge, the Mine, the Monster Truck

[Thecla]

And that the Iraq war really shouldn't have stressed the equipment anymore than America's typical fighting would, correct?

The Iraq war is placing a stress on miltitary equipment that is orders of magnitude beyond anything that would happen in peacetime, or in any "typical fighting", whatever that is. One example from a recent news article:

The longer Mr. Gates is in office the more the casualty toll in Iraq and Afghanistan seems to weigh on him, aides said. On a visit to an American Army base in Kuwait this month, he walked in shirt sleeves on a sweltering evening through the “boneyard,” a vast field of hundreds of mangled Humvees, Bradleys and other armored vehicles destroyed in Iraq. It left him in a somber mood, aides who were present said.