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| Afghanistan |
| How The IED Won : Dispelling the Myth of Tactical Success and Innovation |
| 2017-05-03 |
| Excerpt: [War On The Rocks] No other weapon shaped the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan like the IED. It required that troops charged with enhancing population security confine themselves to massive, armored vehicles and travel at high rates of speed or plow through farmers’ fields to avoid roads entirely. It slowed dismounted troops forced to sweep with metal detectors and divert around empty intersections. It partitioned Baghdad with 12-foot high concrete walls and caused a fertilizer shortage for farmers in Afghanistan. It was the only insurgent weapon that could cause mass civilian casualties, undermining local governance, the credibility of counter-insurgent efforts, and ensuring a steady stream of atrocities -- of the horrors of intervention -- could be broadcast globally. Whether you measure in blood or treasure, the IED also proved the costliest feature of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for American forces. 60 percent of all American fatalities in Iraq and half of all American fatalities in Afghanistan, more than 3,500 in total, were caused by IEDs. The same proportion holds for Americans who were wounded, totaling more than 30,000 service members. When history looks back on these wars, the dominant images will be of the aftermath of these improvised bombs, of their devastating effects on a Baghdad market or of veteran and Afghan amputees. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #5 The immense quantities of explosives acquired by Saddam and just left lying around gave a lot of scope for IED tactics. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2017-05-03 21:43 |
| #4 When you engage in 'kinder gentler' war, you give your opponent the opportunity to set the conditions of the fight. |
| Posted by: P2kontheroad 2017-05-03 17:53 |
| #3 When history looks back on these wars, the dominant images will be of the aftermath of these improvised bombs, of their devastating effects on a Baghdad market or of veteran and Afghan amputees. Neh. The end will far outweigh the beginning. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-05-03 09:51 |
| #2 Mines and booby traps are always going to be some of the deadliest things an insurgent army can use. That said, there are ways to get around them, if you don't mind getting rid of half the country side. In WWII we simply blew up a lot of the minefields with artillery and damn the villages near them. We didn't have that strategy in the boxes as we were trying to "save" the country and win hearts and minds. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2017-05-03 09:12 |
| #1 Whether you call it a IED or booby trap or whatever, probably the single most effective land weapon in world is probably the land mine. When you care enough to leave the very best. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2017-05-03 08:45 |