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| Iraq |
| Defeating IED's |
| 2007-03-07 |
| WASHINGTON, March 6, 2007 – Improvised explosive devices are to the war in Iraq what artillery and mortars were to World War II, Korea and Vietnam -- the main troop killers, a retired general working to defeat the deadly devices said here yesterday. Retired Army Gen. Montgomery Meigs, head of the “IEDs are hybrid, idiosyncratic things that go off in surprising ways,” Meigs said. “But all they are, are the enemy’s fire system. The question is, ‘How do we deal with this fire system?’ And we spend a lot of time on that.” In previous wars, the enemy delivered artillery shells through guns. In Iraq, the enemy delivers the ordnance “through the labyrinth of structures in that society,” Meigs said. But the coalition is making progress against the improvised weapons. “We have gotten better at it, (and we) know more what our enemies are doing,” Meigs said. He added that his organization also has done a better job of finding appropriate technologies to counter these weapons. Car bombs and IEDs are responsible for about 65 percent of the coalition casualties in Iraq, he said. More than 2,500 Americans have died as a result of hostile fire in Iraq, according to DoD officials. But advances in defending against these weapons are working. The ratio of wounded to killed in Iraq is 9 to 1, Meigs said. In Vietnam, that ratio was 2 to 1, and in Korea it was 2.5 to 1. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #6 i wish yall would get off this daisy cutter kick I agree with the wierdest things some times. Ain't gonna drop a MOAB either, nor a tactical nuke. Carry on sinse, I wansn't here. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-03-07 21:03 |
| #5 We really do need to make one good ARCLIGHT strike, say on Hussein's home town, just to show the Iraqis (and Iran and Syria) what we can do when we get serious. The failure to instill fear into the enemy at the beginning of this war is perhaps the single most serious error the command structure has made. I think one six-ship cell, pickling on a single target, would do wonders toward "winning hearts and minds". If you can't make 'em love you, at least get them to fear you. It works, especially with Arabs. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-03-07 13:07 |
| #4 i wish yall would get off this daisy cutter kick. first of all if they haven't used it yet then it is gonna just sit and collect dust as another way of wasting our tax money. |
| Posted by: sinse 2007-03-07 12:59 |
| #3 Meigs said. In Vietnam, that ratio was 2 to 1.. jeebus what genius put that stat in the books? |
| Posted by: RD 2007-03-07 12:58 |
| #2 Why not use their tactics against them ? Random artillary attacks, night and day until all Iraqis surrender to the US ? Tell them, 'we tried to play fair, we tried to bring law and order to Iraq. But, no, they would have none of it, so now we bring hell.' |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-03-07 10:49 |
| #1 Shaped-charge explosives are no more "improvised" than German V-weapons at Peenemünde. The best way to defeat these tank-killer "IEDs" is to cut them off at the source. Daisy-cutter level should do the trick. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-03-07 09:02 |