[lit-ideas] How the US is losing in Iraq

A good set of articles in today's Washington Post on how IEDs have become the major weapon against the US military in Iraq. Here are some quotes. 

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"We all drank the Kool-Aid," said a retired Army officer who worked on counter-IED issues for three years. "We believed (...) because the United States was the technology powerhouse, the solution to this problem would come from science. That attitude was 'All we have to do is throw technology at it and the problem will go away.' The day we lose a war, it will be to guys with spears and loincloths, because they're not tied to technology. And we're kind of close to being there."
More than 81,000 IED attacks have occurred in Iraq, including 25,000 so far this year, according to U.S. military sources.
Bombs detonated by radio-controlled triggers, which had become the most prominent killer of U.S. forces, today amount to only 10 percent of all IEDs in Iraq after the deployment of 30,000 jammers, with more on the way.
The 100 or so daily IED "events" -- bombs that blow up, as well as those discovered before they detonate -- have doubled since the 50 per day typical in January 2006. The 3,229 IEDs recorded in March of this year put the monthly total in Iraq above 3,000 for the first time, a threshold also exceeded in May and June. "The numbers," one Army colonel said, "are astonishing."
Each week, the cat-and-mouse game expanded. When coalition convoys routinely began stopping 300 yards from a suspected IED, insurgents planted easily spotted hoax bombs to halt traffic, then detonated explosives that had been hidden where a convoy would most likely pull over. 

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How did this happen? Miscalculation. The US military is built to carry out mechanized land war. They had no preparation to deal with a guerilla insurgency. The Iraqi, unable to carry out a land war, developed a new strategy based on low-level technology and local infrastructure.
As long as the US continues to drive around in vehicles, the Iraqi will use more IEDs. The US has spent $15 billion to stop IEDs, yet the number of IED continues to grow. The Iraqi can modify the devices faster than the US can come up with solutions, and they can deploy these in overwhelming numbers. 

How to deal with this? Change the game.

yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com


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