US triples spending to stop Iraq bomb attacks-NYT

[bemildred]

In case you are wondering, that is $330,406 per IED attack we are spending to stop IED attacks, which may cost one or two $1000 per each. (Computed at $3.5B/10593.)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is tripling its spending to about $3.5 billion, on a newly expanded effort to combat the rising number of increasingly powerful homemade bombs that are the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq, The New York Times reported on its Web site on Sunday.

The move is a tacit acknowledgment that despite years of rising death tolls from the devices, the response has not been sufficiently focused or coordinated at the highest levels, the Times said.

Last year, 407 of the 846 Americans killed in Iraq were killed by the bombs, which are called improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the report said. The number of IEDs against allied and Iraqi forces and Iraqi civilians nearly doubled last year from 2004 to 10,593.

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In the next few months, the Defense Department plans to double the number of technical, forensic and intelligence specialists assigned to the problem, to about 360 military service members and contractors in the United States and Iraq, the paper said.

Reuters

[Rose Siding]

1. First class tickets home would be more effective.

[LibDemAlways]

3. You beat me to it.

What a colossal waste of money on a no-win situation. This "insurgency" can never be defeated because it represents the will of the Iraqi people - determined to get rid of the invaders and occupiers.

[PSPS]

2. I've got a deal for you!

Pay me a paltry $1 million, and I'll show you how to stop the IED attacks completely!

[salin]

4. but Cheney assured us the insurgency was in its death throes;

and that the elections would take care of everything; and that the rate of training Iraqi police and soldiers was so high that we could soon hand over more and more jobs to them... :eyes:

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Wouldn't it have been easier and cheaper

to secure the ammo dumps like Tuwaitha and Al Qaqaa when we invaded in 2003?

[0007]

6. It would have been for sure! But we were too busy looting museums

and toppling statues for publicity than being sensible. The U.S. was preoccupied doing the "Shock & Awe" thingie

[leftchick]

7. War is a Racket

and doing that would have potentially ended the Racket War much sooner.

http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

[pinniped]

10. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if their plan WAS to let the ammo....

dumps get looted.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. They needed an armed insurgency

otherwise they wouldn't have an excuse for turning Iraq into a military state.

[rodeodance]

8. one thing for sure-IED's will have a place in the history books.

[leesa]

9. And this will help... how?

[VegasWolf]

12. Mr. Bush, let Iraq have its own oil. Stop trying to take it. nt