Troops were wrong, but ...

Dallas Morning News: No army can tolerate troops who refuse to follow legal orders, especially in a theater of war. The insubordination displayed by 18 Army reservists who refused to complete a supply mission in Iraq last week is an extremely serious matter. The Army cannot let these soldiers get away with it.
Yet it is hard not to sympathize with the choice those soldiers made. They risked their military careers, and possibly even their freedom, rather than go on what they feared was a suicide convoy mission.
The soldiers said their trucks were not road-worthy, putting them at greater risk for breakdown, thus an easier target for insurgents. Moreover, the trucks lacked armor plating, they said, and the military would not provide an attack helicopter escort through the desert. Brig. Gen. James Chambers confirmed that the unit's trucks had no armor, and he ordered a safety and maintenance review of all trucks in that company.
Unconscionable
Given the guerrilla nature of the Iraq war, reservists and National Guard troops running support missions find themselves effectively deployed on the front lines. To force them to serve there without adequate protection is unconscionable.