Inexcusable Casualties

Rantburg has news and commentary on the Chinook shootdown near Fallujah. My giant, economy-sized question is -why- are unescorted, thin-skinned helis like Chinooks flying over the Iraqi "bandit country" during a state of high terror alert? The Army needs to get the brass's heads out of their collective fundaments and start reading the Marine's "Little War" manual instanter, or there will be more needless deaths like this.