Think Progress

9 Responses to “Roadside bombs”

1. dlet says:

   ---

   I have no idea how these servicemen feel when they are sent out to “patrol” an area and return after achieving nothing of substance day in and day out and all the while having the feeling of just waiting to be blown up.

   January 2nd, 2007 at 10:15 am

   ---

2. Zimzone says:

   ---

   Hmmm,
   Think the Sunni’s will do more of this in retribution for Saddam being hanged? I think they probably will.
   Ironic yet tragic that the 3,000 dead Americans mark was hit New Year’s Eve.
   Support our troops.
   Bring ‘em home now!

   January 2nd, 2007 at 10:20 am

   ---

3. Zooey says:

   ---

   Support our troops.
   Bring ‘em home now!
   Comment by Zimzone

   Amen.

   January 2nd, 2007 at 10:32 am

   ---

4. TripMaster Monkey says:

   ---

   Well, I guess you can build a hell of a lot of IEDs with 385 tons of stolen explosives.

   I just wonder how much of that they’ve burned through at this time.

   January 2nd, 2007 at 10:44 am

   ---

5. fnordboy says:

   ---

   TripMaster’s got it right. A direct result of GWB & Co. having no plans past toppling Saddam’s statue. No need to secure those bunkers full of explosives, seeing as we’ll be greeted with flowers, chocolates and great big hugs.

   January 2nd, 2007 at 10:51 am

   ---

6. RealityCheck says:

   ---

   The bigger picture is that any new military technology sold for big bucks (read your tax dollars) to the government will eventually filter down into the hands of our enemies who will kill us with them. Like duh. Yet we continue to fund all this secret military R&D crap to find the perfect offense and perfect defense. But then it will be a matter of time before our enemies have that “perfect offense and perfect defense.” This is called the “keep the military-industrial complex fully employed” strategy based on cowardly Democrats afraid to say “no” to defense appropriation bills out of fear of being called weak on defense. Guys: you are not weak when you say “no” to insanity.

   January 2nd, 2007 at 12:20 pm

   ---

7. Gregor Samsa says:

   ---

   “[EDs] are the perfect asymmetric weapon – cheap, effective, and anonymous.”

   History repeats itself; the Vietnamese also devised asymetric weapons that were cheap and effective.

   I am still baffled by the absolute inability of the war planners to foresee, or even think of, an occupied Iraq where the civilian population would fight against the occupation.

   This is not the first time the US finds itself fighting an insurgency on their own soil; on each occasion the locals were not thrilled by the American presence on their land, and not deterred by the obvious American military superiority.

   On each occasion the insurgents were willing to take on huge casualties in order to expel the invaders, and used whatever (low-tech) means were available to them to achieve that goal.

   It seems to me this administration is running solely on a considerable dose of wishful thinking, ignorance, arrogance, or a combination thereof.

   January 2nd, 2007 at 1:59 pm

   ---

8. New Yorker says:

   ---

   It seems to me this administration is running solely on a considerable dose of wishful thinking, ignorance, arrogance, or a combination thereof.

   Comment by Gregor Samsa — January 2, 2007 @ 1:59 pm

   And a solid dose of delusion.

   January 2nd, 2007 at 4:56 pm

   ---

9. Paul in LA says:

   ---

   “In early April (2003), U.S. troops had arrived at al-Qaqaa, a large facility thirty miles south of Baghdad. The bunkers at the complex contained 194 metric tons of High Melting Point Explosive (HMX) and 141 metric tons of Rapid Detonation Explosive (RMX). High explosives, like RDX and HMX, are used to implode a uranium or plutonium sphere and thus trigger a chain reaction leading to a nuclear explosion. ‘Fat Boy,’ the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945, used one ton of high explosives.”

   …”In spite of these warnings, U.S. troops left the al-Qaqaa bunkers unguarded. In the months that followed, looters removed the RDX, the HMX, and 5.8 metric tons of PETN, a third explosive. This was no small operation. Removing so much material would have required at least forty ten-ton trucks.”

   – Peter Galbraith, “The End of Iraq” (p. 103-4)

   Bush and Rummy WROTE NO ORDERS to guard Al-Qaqaa, evern after in-person warnings by top UN officials.

   WHERE are the bomb materials that fuel the IED’s coming from?

   From Donald Rumsfeld and his pal, the shitbird Bush, currently roosting on our White House.

   • Failure to guard major munitions dumps in the invaded country.

   #35 on the list of Bush’s impeachable acts (out of 1,234). Collect the whole list!

   January 2nd, 2007 at 6:04 pm

   ---