Shawn,
In Somalia, after the Bad Day event, the US Army put in place a VFR airway setup around Moga. We inherited that routine and it made me wonder then why such things happen. Knowing the Army mentality...it does not surprise me that similar things happened in Iraq. The key is in making one self "unpredictable" as possible. If I wish to mug you...all you have to do is follow the same path at the same time at the same height at the same speed......and WHAM! GOTCHA!
Using Hover fire techniques in the open desert or an urban area that is not divided by a MLR with opposing forces nicely divided between over there and right here....just sets the guys up for trouble. In Somalia, Task Force Ranger became predictable and used the same tactics repeatedly. Then to do it in the daylight to boot....just begged for trouble.
My hat is off to the courage those guys demonstrated during that fight....but I would suggest it could have been avoided by use of different tactics. Critiques of that action confirm that.