Go read "The Alamo is over-rated as a tourist attraction, dammit", an account of a female soldier's narrow escape from Kut in Iraq yesterday. (Hat tip: Command Post)

... it was the concrete reality that you were going to die. I felt that a few times yesterday, last night, and this morning. Escape attempt after attempt fell through, and those mortars started hitting the grounds, the gate, the vehicles. The enemy sent word that when darkness fell, they were going to over-run the compound and exterminate everyone there. The whole Iraqi security force just up and quit. One guy claimed that his mother had had a heart attack and he had to go home. I heard that on the radio myself. It’s the dog-ate-my-schoolwork excuse as applied to battle.

Fallujah was on everyone’s mind, but nobody---thank God----said it. I can’t even grasp that we lived through it. I don’t think it’s hit me yet.

Update: the author pulled this post, apparently it was getting too much attention ...
  ¶ 6:18 PM