"Only half as deadly as they were a year ago"-re:IEDs

[w8liftinglady]

I love political doublespeak.

...
But in an indication the problem is still serious, President Bush on Saturday is getting his first briefing from Montgomery Meigs, the retired Army general who is heading a Pentagon organization armed with a multibillion-dollar budget in pursuit of measures to counter the threat.
...

EXCUSE ME?
Our soldiers have been having the shit blown out of them for three years,and they are NOW having a meeting?


...
Christine Devries, spokeswoman for Meigs' group that is known as the Joint IED Defeat Organization, said much progress has been made already. As an illustration, she said that about 40 of every 100 roadside bombs are found and defused before they explode. That means the other 60 do explode, although Devries said the number of U.S. troops killed or wounded by each explosion has fallen by about 50 percent from a year ago.

...

and I'd like to know more about these people,as well-anyone know?


...
Devries said the administration has not yet decided how much it will spend on the counter-IED effort in the 2007 budget year that begins Oct. 1. Bush's proposed 2007 budget has no specific provision for financing the Meigs' organization; its money will be drawn from several different spending accounts in the budget, Devries said.

...
of course.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060311/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/roadside_bombs;_ylt=Aq1TpLuE4le_VCCsKYkbzFAD5gcF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

[radfringe]

1. so when encountering an IED

you're only half as dead?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. And the IED's that are driving around on 4 wheels... or more... they

are being found ahead of time as well?? It doesn't look like it.

[hippiechick]

3. Only half as deadly because over 50% of the folks over there are dead ...

... there's only half the population left to kill. :shrug:

[BiggJawn]

4. They're running out of 500-pound bombs.

So now they're having to use 250's.
Next year, they'll be using hand grenades. See the wonder of the Bush Stratergy? We use our young people as DECOYS, to get the Insurgents (resistance) to deplete their supply of ordnance! Soon they will run out of bombs, unless they start bringing them in from Iran and Syria, which then gives us the right to bomb Damascus and Tehran.

Genius! Brilliant, Dr. Strangelust!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. Are the corpses only half as dead?

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

6. Bona fide WTF reasoning

"As an illustration, she said that about 40 of every 100 roadside bombs are found and defused before they explode. That means the other 60 do explode, although Devries said the number of U.S. troops killed or wounded by each explosion has fallen by about 50 percent from a year ago."

But that's in part because the sheer number of IED attacks has shot up so much, with a number of amateurs learning the trade and not building bombs as deadly-- while the experienced bomb builders become even more lethal. The reports from the military now indicate that the IED experts among the insurgency have learned to make especially horrid devices with a combination of artillery and mortar shells, plastic explosives (C-4, Semtex, HMX, RDX, CL-20, all accumulated in abundance during Saddam's rule and trafficked in through black markets after March 2003), and land mines that will even take out a tank, and indeed, dozens of tanks have been disabled, some blown apart by the newest generation IED's.

Even worse, the newer IED's are almost impossible to detect or to thwart. The US military was using EM jammers for a while as the IED technicians began to use remote control rather than direct (fuse on a wire) methods to detonate them, but now, the IED builders and wielders have adjusted by utilizing laser devices. Even more alarming, many IED's are set up with "null activators" that set off the IED's when the electronic signal is jammed by a nearby vehicle.

To make matters still worse, many of the guerrilla soldiers being trained in the IED technology hail from surrounding countries rather than Iraq itself, and they've now learned how to wield what is essentially the ultimate political assassination device. Secret service forces around the world have figured how to thwart assassins attempting to work as snipers, but it's next to impossible to stop a well-placed IED with a solid technological foundation and that's maintained well-hidden. This is yet another security disaster ensuing from Bush, the "national security" President who can't do anything right.