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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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 Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 5:32 am Post subject: Roadside bombs decline in Iraq |
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By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON � Roadside bomb attacks and fatalities in Iraq are down by almost 90% over the last year, according to Pentagon records and interviews with military leaders.
In May, 11 U.S. troops were killed by blasts from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) compared with 92 in May 2007, records show. That's an 88% decrease.
Military leaders cite several factors for the drop in attacks and deaths. They include:
� New vehicles. Almost 7,000 heavily armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles have been rushed to Iraq in the last year. "They've taken hits, many, many hits that would have killed soldiers and marines in uparmored Humvees," Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a recent interview.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates made obtaining at least 15,000 MRAPs his top priority last year.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: California | Baghdad | Pentagon | Joint Chiefs of Staff | Center for Strategic | Humvees | MRAPs | Budgetary Assessments | Mullen | Twentynine Palms | Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch | Mine Resistant Ambush Protected | Sons of Iraq | Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center | Dakota Wood
� Iraqi assistance. Ad hoc local security forces, known as the Sons of Iraq, have provided on-the-ground intelligence to U.S. forces looking for IEDs, said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who commanded a division in Baghdad from February 2007 until May.
Each member of the security forces earns about $8 per day. Lynch has hired about 36,000 of them to man checkpoints and provide intelligence on the insurgency. He said about 60% had been insurgents.
� Improved surveillance. Lynch said his troops used new security cameras that could see bomb builders up to 5 miles away. "If they're out there planting an IED, we can go whack them before they finish," he said.
Also, Lynch said, the 14-ton MRAPs have forced insurgents to build bigger bombs to knock out the vehicles. Those bombs take more time to build and hide, which gives U.S. forces a better chance of catching the insurgents in the act and then attacking them.
Among the new U.S. tactics, paying the Sons of Iraq is a particularly good investment, said Dakota Wood, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Whether the money is viewed as "buying off" insurgents is less important than the lull in violence it creates, Wood said. It's almost impossible to rebuild infrastructure, foster commerce and set up elections when streets are unsafe, he said. "Any effort that creates a window of opportunity in which other stabilization actions can take root is a good thing."
Iraqi insurgents, however, are changing their tactics. During a visit to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., Marines showed Mullen the latest trend in IEDs: Fake curbs fashioned from metal, filled with ball bearings and explosives. Virtually indistinguishable from concrete rubble, the new bombs require a trained eye to spot.
Insurgents are also using pressure-detonated IEDs, including those with 15 pounds of explosives that blow the tires off an MRAP and allow insurgents to attack it, Mullen said.
"The whole issue of IEDs � vehicle borne, suicide, you name it � is going to be the weapon of choice and I think it's going to be around a long, long time," he said. |
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-06-22-ieds_N.htm |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:25 am Post subject: |
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| Cool, let's go there, get a rental, and drive around Baghdad! |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 7:39 am Post subject: |
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| Tiger Beer wrote: |
| Cool, let's go there, get a rental, and drive around Baghdad! |
wonder what Korea was like in 1951? |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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Victory in Iraq.
Congratulations.
Bush was right.
Now we'll have obama get in and undo all the good work, what an idiot. |
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee wrote: |
| Tiger Beer wrote: |
| Cool, let's go there, get a rental, and drive around Baghdad! |
wonder what Korea was like in 1951? |
Post war Korea was nothing like Iraq. I'm surprised that you've tried to play this card as it is a proven failure. |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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| catman wrote: |
| Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee wrote: |
| Tiger Beer wrote: |
| Cool, let's go there, get a rental, and drive around Baghdad! |
wonder what Korea was like in 1951? |
Post war Korea was nothing like Iraq. I'm surprised that you've tried to play this card as it is a proven failure. |
Post war Korea no, but the Korea war was far more bloody than the Iraq war.
Iraq hasn't gotten to post war Korea but it can get there within five years. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Nah. Korea didn't have three different subsets of the same violence prone ideology. Joo, the Americans are standing in the middle of a thousand year old religious civil war. Their conflict is bigger than our strategic goals. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 10:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Is there any possibility at all that the bad guys are simply pulling back for the time being? Kinda like G. Washington in the Revolution? (Or Fabius Maximus or Mao) |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Great when will they start opening Go-Go bars and happy ending Massage parlous. |
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Jandar
Joined: 11 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:03 pm Post subject: |
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You can't compare Korea to Iraq.
First the commies swept through and wiped out all the insurgent types that threatened them.
Then the southern regime swept through and killed all the commie simps.
Then the commies came back and snuffed out what little remained.
After the final (4th or 5th) commie offensive there was little left to insurge.
Not only that but there is far more food in Iraq than there was in Korea post war.
Hungry battered people don't fight well. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| Nah. Korea didn't have three different subsets of the same violence prone ideology. Joo, the Americans are standing in the middle of a thousand year old religious civil war. Their conflict is bigger than our strategic goals. |
You said it perfectly. |
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TexasPete
Joined: 24 May 2006
Location: Koreatown
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 3:51 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Afghanistan attacks up 40% in east, Pentagon says |
Say, isn't that the country that ACTUALLY attacked us?
| Quote: |
| WASHINGTON -- Insurgent activity is increasing sharply in Afghanistan and has spread into once stable areas, with attacks up almost 40% in the eastern provinces alone, according to new American military data that have prompted alarm among senior Pentagon officials. |
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-usafghan25-2008jun25,0,4289911.story
Though i am glad to hear that IED incidents in Iraq are down.
Last edited by TexasPete on Thu Jun 26, 2008 3:54 am; edited 1 time in total |
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TexasPete
Joined: 24 May 2006
Location: Koreatown
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 3:51 am Post subject: |
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| nm... |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:45 am Post subject: |
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[quote="TexasPete"]
| Quote: |
| Afghanistan attacks up 40% in east, Pentagon says |
Say, isn't that the country that ACTUALLY attacked us?
I dunno , how many of the 9-11 hijackers were from Afghanistan? How about Osama Bin Laden what is his nationality. I don't think the Taliban ordered the strike. What do you think?
How about Al Zawahari? Mohammad Atef. Al Libi In fact in the entire Al Qaeda leadership their wasn't / isn't even one person from Afghanistan. |
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TexasPete
Joined: 24 May 2006
Location: Koreatown
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee"]
| TexasPete wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Afghanistan attacks up 40% in east, Pentagon says |
Say, isn't that the country that ACTUALLY attacked us?
I dunno , how many of the 9-11 hijackers were from Afghanistan? How about Osama Bin Laden what is his nationality. I don't think the Taliban ordered the strike. What do you think?
How about Al Zawahari? Mohammad Atef. Al Libi In fact in the entire Al Qaeda leadership their wasn't / isn't even one person from Afghanistan. |
You yourself can't stop quoting the figure of 70,000 jihadists trained by AQ in Afghanistan. They 9/11 hijackers may not be from Afghanistan, but when AQ had it's base of operations there, it's pretty safe to say that if the Taleban didn't outright order the go ahead for 9/11, they at least gave the blessing to AQ while harboring them. It doesn't matter where they came from so much as where they were when the shit went down. |
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