• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

I can’t take this shit today. I just can’t.

Just a few bad apples.

The house always wins.

Everybody saw this coming.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

It was down to kool-aid drinkers and next of kin at the trump White House

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Shocking, but not surprising

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Good luck with your asparagus.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Naturally gregarious and alpha

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn – Nancy Pelosi

Reality always wins in the end.

Too inconsequential to be sued

An almost top 10,000 blog!

The math demands it!

Shelter in place is one thing. Shelter in pants is quite another.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Nevertheless, she persisted.

Mobile Menu

  • Look Forward & Back
  • Balloon Juice 2021 Pet Calendar
  • Site Feedback
  • All 2020 Fundraising
  • I Voted!
  • Take Action: Things We Can Do
  • Team Claire, and Family
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • BJ PayPal Donations
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Nature & Respite
  • Information As Power
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • On The Road
  • Garden Chats
  • Nature & Respite
  • Look Forward & Back
You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / Bomb-Building Techniques Improve

Bomb-Building Techniques Improve

by John Cole|  August 4, 200510:11 am| 16 Comments

This post is in: Military, War on Terror aka GSAVE®

Facebook0Tweet0Email0

From the NY Times:

The explosion that killed 14 marines in Haditha yesterday was powerful enough to flip the 25-ton amphibious assault vehicle they were riding in, in keeping with an increasingly deadly trend, American military officers say.

In recent months the roadside bombs favored by insurgents in Iraq have grown significantly in size and sophistication, the officers say, adding to their deadliness and defeating efforts to increase troops’ safety by adding armor to vehicles…

Senior American commanders say they have also seen evidence that insurgents are making increased use of “shaped” charges, which concentrate the blast and give it a better chance of penetrating armored vehicles, causing higher casualties.

Bomb-making techniques used by the anti-Israeli militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon have increasingly begun appearing in roadside bombs in Iraq. A senior American commander said bombs using shaped charges closely matched the bombs that Hezbollah used against Israel.

“Our assessment is that they are probably going off to school” to learn how to make bombs that can destroy armored vehicles, the officer said.

Not good news.

Facebook0Tweet0Email0
Previous Post: « Things You Will Never Hear From Tom DeLay
Next Post: Surprise, Surprise »

Reader Interactions

16Comments

  1. 1.

    Dennis J

    August 4, 2005 at 10:51 am

    Not good news at ALL.

    We live in sad times. Not as bad as many in the past, but sorrowful nonetheless.

  2. 2.

    Phillip J. Birmingham

    August 4, 2005 at 11:29 am

    John, you might find John Robb’s Global Guerrillas site interesting. Here’s his article on the same topic:

    THE IED MARKETPLACE IN IRAQ

  3. 3.

    Veeshir

    August 4, 2005 at 11:56 am

    Wait, you mean the Islamo-wacko groups work together?
    Whodathunkit?

  4. 4.

    Mr Furious

    August 4, 2005 at 11:56 am

    “Our assessment is that they are probably going off to school” to learn how to make bombs that can destroy armored vehicles, the officer said.

    Possible. Or they are just getting better with practice. What a fucking mess.

  5. 5.

    Stormy70

    August 4, 2005 at 12:25 pm

    I can’t believe our enemies will just fight back like this. I mean, it is almost like we are in a war on global terror like President Bush told us in Sept. 2001.

  6. 6.

    ckrisz

    August 4, 2005 at 12:29 pm

    Dude, it ain’t GSAVE anymore, did you get the memo?

    http://nytimes.com/2005/08/04/politics/04bush.html?hp&ex=1123128000&en=997cdd1d8ec001fa&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    I find it hard to believe that predominantly Sunni insurgents, a significant number of whom are primarily interested in killing Shiites, would either accept or be given help by Hizbullah, which is very very Shiite. Plus, someone had to train Hizbullah — maybe Syrian involvement here, though I wonder to what degree it is “authorized” vs. freelance/mercenary.

    More likely, I think, the bombmakers are just taking additional measures to defeat armored vehicles as more and more Hummvees get armor. Since a lot of these guys are ex-Iraqi military or RG, it’s not like they’re unfamiliar with shaped charges.

  7. 7.

    ckrisz

    August 4, 2005 at 12:31 pm

    Oops, didn’t read your article re: the slogan of the week below.

  8. 8.

    Defense Guy

    August 4, 2005 at 12:39 pm

    I find it hard to believe that predominantly Sunni insurgents, a significant number of whom are primarily interested in killing Shiites, would either accept or be given help by Hizbullah, which is very very Shiite. Plus, someone had to train Hizbullah—- maybe Syrian involvement here, though I wonder to what degree it is “authorized” vs. freelance/mercenary.

    Hezbullah is a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran, so you can bet your ass they will try to make themselves helpful in any fight against western freedom, especially one involving the US (aka the Great Satan).

  9. 9.

    Slartibartfast

    August 4, 2005 at 1:44 pm

    The whole GSAVE bit is disturbingly reminiscent of GPALS. Our government can’t name things to save their own lives, I mean: The Department of Homeland Security? What are these guys thinking?

    Oh. They aren’t.

  10. 10.

    Richard Bottoms

    August 4, 2005 at 2:32 pm

    Bush is resolute and does not flip flop.

    That should take care of it.

  11. 11.

    Ckrisz

    August 4, 2005 at 4:26 pm

    Pop quiz: Iran is (A) Shiite (B) Sunni?

    If you’ve keeping track of Iran/Iraqi relations in the past month, I think you would know Iran is extremely amenable to the new Iraqi government, and not at all disposed to the Sunni guerrillas.

    http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18150

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/16/AR2005071601165.html

  12. 12.

    BadTux

    August 4, 2005 at 4:59 pm

    G-FATSO (the Global Fight Against Those Sitting on our Oil) is perfect proof of the theory of evolution. Much as bacteria, subjected to antibiotics, slowly develop methods of coping with antibiotics and evolve to become deadlier and deadlier through the simple expedient of the stupidest and weakest dying and the stronger becoming smarter and stronger, so, too, goes with the insurgents in Iraq.

    As someone pointed out, the notion of the Shiite group Hizbulah training Sunni guerillas who hate Shiites is as ludicrous as the notion that Saddam was developing nuclear weapons (a notion which may have made some sense in August 2002, but by February 2003, after UN inspectors had been traipsing around Iraq for months with radiation detectors going wherever they wanted to go, anybody reading the reports coming out of Blix’s office knew it was a ludicrous notion). It’s not happening. What’s happening in Iraq today is simple evolution. As we pour stronger “antibiotics” into Iraq, the bacteria are gaining resistance. They’re getting smarter, deadlier, and tougher.

    If we’d roared into Iraq with 300,000 troops, we wouldn’t have that problem — we would have wiped out the disease much like a massive antibiotic regime will wipe out a disease in your body. Sort of like how, after we conquered Germany and stationed close to a million soldiers there (Germany was a nation of roughly 100 million people prior to the war, probably 50 million left in our occupation zone by the end), not a single U.S. soldier died due to enemy action. But Rummy and Dear Leader wanted to wage a war “on the cheap” and ignored the lessons on the past… thus, like a doctor prescribing weak antibiotics, giving the bacteria a chance to develop resistance to the medicine.

    Look, I’m not against G-FATSO. There’s a global crisis coming up as the oil starts running dry, and I’m patriotic enough that I want America to survive that. But the Bush Administration implementation of G-FATSO has been just one incompetent bungling after another. They’re proud to tout their “victory” over Saddam’s armed forces, without telling the American people that Saddam’s armed forces were so weak that they could not retake northern Iraq even when going up against only maybe 20,000 Kurdish peshmerga armed with RPG’s and AK-47’s… anybody who knew anything knew that the big issue was going to be what to do after Saddam’s armed forces collapsed, because there was no way they were going to stand up to the best-equipped military in the world for more time than it took our tanks to drive from the border to the center of Baghdad. *I* knew this, before the first shot of the war, and all I did was look at the history of the Iraqi Army’s failed attempts to retake northern Iraq. Only an utter fool could have thought that the hard part was taking Iraq. As with Afghanistan (which the Soviet Army conquered in two week’s time), the hard part came *after* the conquest, and only a fool would differ. Unfortunately, an utter fool is, apparently, what we have as a leader…

    – Badtux the Military Penguin

    PS: For those who say, “but Iraq was not about oil!” — do you really *truly* believe that we would have invaded Iraq if their biggest economic resource was turnips rather than oil? If so, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you…

  13. 13.

    frontinus

    August 4, 2005 at 6:31 pm

    Sunnis are oil and Shi’a are water. Everybody knows this.

    Idiots.

    They worked together to push the English out of Iraq. They worked together to make war several times against Israel. They worked together when Hizbollah attacked the Khobar Towers for al-Qaeda in 1996. They worked together in Sudan when Mugniyah met bin Laden.

    I swear always the most opinionated people are coincidentally the most ignorant.

    By the way, the Taliban were Hanifa Sunni while al-Qaeda were Hanbali Sunni. Those damned sectarian walls are like a sieve.

  14. 14.

    frontinus

    August 4, 2005 at 6:35 pm

    Oh, and how many years ago was it that the American al-Qaeda published the 7,000(yes, ladies…seven thousand) page manual for jihad? If they had plans to turn a cigarette into a deadly(ok, more immediately deadly) weapon I seriously doubt shaped charges were a Gordian knot.

  15. 15.

    Steve

    August 4, 2005 at 7:28 pm

    Iran has NO interest in undermining the new Iraqi government. Zip, zero, zilch.

  16. 16.

    shark

    August 5, 2005 at 1:40 pm

    Bomb-making techniques used by the anti-Israeli militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon

    Why are they afraid to call Hezbollah what they are: TERRORISTS?

    WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE “PEOPLE”??

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Do Something!

Call Your Senators & Representatives
Directory of US Senators
Directory of US Representatives

I Got the Shot!  (Month 2)
I Got the Shot!

 

🎈Ways to Support Our Site

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal
Shop Amazon via this link to support Balloon Juice ⬇  

Recent Comments

  • Brachiator on CPAC Open Thread: Ted Cruz Will Never Get the Acclaim He Craves (Feb 27, 2021 @ 11:26am)
  • WereBear on CPAC Open Thread: Ted Cruz Will Never Get the Acclaim He Craves (Feb 27, 2021 @ 11:17am)
  • mali muso on Saturday Morning Open Thread: Moving Along (Feb 27, 2021 @ 11:15am)
  • Just Chuck on Bone Saw Skates? (Feb 27, 2021 @ 11:12am)
  • Bruuuuce on CPAC Open Thread: Ted Cruz Will Never Get the Acclaim He Craves (Feb 27, 2021 @ 11:11am)

Team Claire, and Family

Claire Updates
Claire is Home!

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year

Featuring

John Cole
Silverman on Security
COVID-19 Coronavirus
Medium Cool with BGinCHI
Furry Friends

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Submit Photos to On the Road
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Meetups: Proof of Life
2021 Pets of Balloon Juice Calendar

Culture: Books, Film, TV, Music, Games, Podcasts

Noir: Favorites in Film, Books, TV
Book Recommendations & Indy Recs
Mystery Recommendations
Netflix Favorites
Amazon Prime Favorites
Netflix Suggestions in July
Longmire & Netflix Suggestions

Twitter

John Cole’s Twitter

[custom-twitter-feeds]

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!