The Fight against IEDs-Buried IEDs Take Heavy Toll on US, Iraqi Forces as "Surge" Intensifies

[babylonsister]

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3068/Arraf_Reports_The_Fight_against_IEDs

Arraf Reports: The Fight against IEDs
Buried IEDs Take Heavy Toll on US, Iraqi Forces as "Surge" Intensifies
By JANE ARRAF Posted 3 hr. 20 min. ago


Seen through splintered bullet-resistant glass, US soldiers from 2-12 Infantry Battalion examine their damaged Humvee after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) detonated in Baghdad's predominantly Sunni al-Dora neighborhood March 19.
Photo by David Furst/AFP-Getty Images


Baghdad - As U.S. forces surge into areas where insurgents have regrouped, soldiers are being increasingly hit by buried IEDs which cause devastating casualties by exploding through the underside of armored vehicles, commanders say.

The buried explosives are both more destructive than traditional improvised explosives devices often hidden in trash or disguised on the surface, and harder to find with current IED-clearing equipment.
Buried IED explodes at intersection near al-Dora neighborhood of Baghdad on Friday as Stryker brigade soldiers approach on foot . No one was hurt.

In Sunni strongholds in Baghdad and in Baquba, the “deep-buried IEDs” have been used in some of the most devastating attacks since the surge began.

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[Tesha]

1. No one could have anticipated that our enemies would learn.

No one could have anticipated that our enemies would learn,
getting better and better at attacking our forces over time.

After all, they aren't Americans, they're just stupid
dirty <insert racial epithet here>.

No one could have anticipated that all that explosive
material that we lost track of in the early days might
ever come back to haunt us.

No one could have anticipated that ordnance that mis-
fired could be turned into IEDs.

No one could have anticipated that our enemies would
learn to create explosive pentetrators.

(Coming soon)

No one could have anticipated that the enemy would take
all the spent depleted uranium that we've left laying
around and turn it into the highly-effective formed
penetrators that will be used in the next generation
of IEDs.

Tesha

[liberal renegade]

2. They're doing to us

what we did to the best trained military force on planet earth. Some 242 years ago, a bunch of revolutionaries kicked the shit out of the british.


The Iraqis are now kicking the shit out of the best trained and equipped military force on planet earth, kinda of ironic, isn't it....

[babylonsister]

3. Very good analogy, and I must say, as sad as it is, we had it coming. nt