QUOTE: Innovation and information sharing in Iraq's IED marketplace

"People are calling me all the time, asking for new ways to ..." Abdallah says, pressing down his right thumb on an imaginary remote control, and adds, "... Boom!" to TIME correspondents. A classic example of shared innovation in Iraq's open source war.

TIME's Bobby Ghosh has a great interview with an open source IED developer working for Sunni groups (read the whole thing). More:

Brigadier General Joe Ramirez Jr., deputy commanding general of the Combined Arms Training Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., said, "For every move we make, the enemy makes three ... The enemy changes techniques, tactics and procedures every two to three weeks."

"They are not going to defeat me with technology," he says. "If they want to get rid of IEDs, they have to kill me and everyone like me." If they don't, Abdallah is only going to get better at what he does, with deadly consequences for American soldiers.

Comments

[yacheritsi]

It can be arranged.

[adam]

"It can be arranged."

Well, the US has been trying now for heading towards half a decade. They've failed. Its reached the point where bombmakers are quite happy to have a chat with some journalists and show off a little. All the bombmaker failed to say was something macho like "bring it on".

Perhaps if the US military was minimally competant it could be arranged. Actually, if the US military was effective it wouldn't need to be arranged. The reality is that the US military during The Surge (TM) is still unable to control the streets of Bagdhad to any appreciable level. For those with a sense of humour, US air-strikes in Iraq are at an all time high, and there went the plans for counter-insurgency.

The article itself is quite fascinating in how subversive the normally flag-waving media is being. Those that can recall back to 2003 can remember that Time was definately all in favour of the US Invasion of Iraq. Currently the US government is saying that the Iraqis cannot make IEDs (apparently because they're now too dim,m despite havng conscription and the largest supply of civil engineers in the Middle East). I also note that Time emphasises that the weapons are home made by Sunnis, not provided by Shi'ite Iran. Its this kind of direct contradiction of the US government position that so upsets the far-right in the US. If we can't, in the words of the extremists, "bomb bomb bomb Iran" what is the point of invading Iraq?

I also love the complete disconnect in the US military - the JIEDDO general spends his time babbling about how 6 tines as many bombs were needed to splatter one American (Iraqis, bridges ,and major religious shrines really don't count) yet at the same time IED casualties are going up. The only conclusion is that more than 6 times as many IEDs are being used on Americans. And thats without counting things such as better armoured vehicles.

The upshot is that the US is being out-engineered by the Iraqis, something of a first for the US. Still, with a $4bn budget I am sure he has a great office and thats what counts. Self-serving bureaucracy wins again.

[Duncan Kinder]

quote:
"For every move we make, the enemy makes three ... The enemy changes techniques, tactics and procedures every two to three weeks.""
:end_of_quote

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life begins with a sketch about how a renegade accounting firm turns pirate and and begins to pillage the world of accountancy.

We will know that John Robb's theories are really taking off when we actually witness such renegade firms swashbuckling around.

[JDubbs]

“The upshot is that the US is being out-engineered by the Iraqis”

Ahhhh you place to much faith in technology. That's one of the reason we're in this predicament to begin with, too much dpendence on technology. Technology is useless without the will to yield it’s power. It’s not so much being out engineered as it is a will to power on the part of the insurgency. They have it, we don’t or as Ho Chi Mihn once said ““We have a secret weapon...it is called Nationalism”” and well, we eventually have to go home, timetable or not and they know that. And just like any breakup you want that to happen on your own terms.

[Russell120]

I agree that the focus is too much on the technology.

If the US had control on the ground they would not be able to plant enormous bombs in the middle of cities. So long as the US has to run around to every hot spot, they will be susceptible to ambush. Even locals that might be sympathetic, will not support them for fear of the insurgents who are with them all the time.

The US had a lot of problems with IEDs in Vietnam. However, that was a much "hotter" war so it was not as well publicized.

The US Navy has similarly been very slow to give naval mines the attention they require. Although not the first choice for terrorists and guerrillas, they are a popular choice with the asymmetrical warfare crowd - like Iran.

[Bill Moore]

Adam, the article didn't say Iran was "not" provided EFPs to the Shi'a militia, it just stated the obvious, which is that Sunnis are developing their own. Additionally the IED TF has made great strides in improving Soldier safety, but as stated in the article their approach is a losing game, because the enemy will adapt quickly. I think it goes back to one Robb's previous posts on the Red Queen effect, but worse, because we're about the toughest enemy these terrorists will fight from a technology stand point, which means they will evolved their TTP far beyond the capabilities of their next target country's defensive capabilities.

[ramsis]

It can be arranged."

Well, the US has been trying now for heading towards half a decade. They've failed.
Well actually it can be arranged and in truth it most likely already was. idiots like Abdallah have been attacking long lines of hopeful Iraqi recruits and civilians (not just americans)just to see those lines swell again the next day! it's true the enemy adapts well and a EFP is a devistating weapon to an american humvee, but the Iraqi military adapts as well and they too have a secret weapon it's called freedom.http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/83279457-5969-4196-8C2E-41BB861F3349.htm

[adam]

Ramsis,

Please, don't make me giggle. People queue for highly paid army / police jobs in Iraq because there's nothing else. Unemployment officially is well over 60%. Unofficially its higher than that as it doesn't include Iraqi women that used to work but now cannot as its far too dangerous. The US, don't forget, closed down all the Iraqi industries during the "crazed privatisation period" of the CPA. The actual military effectiveness of the Iraqi military against people who actually have guns remains zero. The good news, out today, is that Iraq isn't the worst place on the planet - its number two against Sudan! Huzzah!

Lets look at your article - from the 2nd heading. First "Latif al-Tamimi, chief of the security committee on the Maysan council, called the operation a "catastrophe", accusing troops of firing randomly."

In other words the people in charge of the area (you know, the more-or-less-kind-of democratically elected ones) say that the dead probably were just unlucky bystanders. This isn't unusual in Iraq. Of course they could equally have worked for the Maysan government... That isn't unusual either.

Major David Gell, British military spokesman
Gell told Al Jazeera: "It must be made clear; the operation was conducted under the directive of [Nuri] al-Maliki and the government of Iraq. Iraqi Special Operations Forces were very much in the lead."

In effect the British have announced: "Mass killings by Maliki-run SCIRI Death Squads? Yep - it was them and not us, squire. Not our fault" To be fair the British did pull out of Maysan some time ago (August 2006) and the fact that they now seem to be running operations there again isn't a good sign.

"The fighters are believed to be Shia fighters loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, a populist Shia leader and prominent figure in Maysan province."

Which SCIRI want to bump off... The minor fact that Sadrists are, in Iraq, a legitimate political party is, shall we say, something besides the point. Admittedly its now US policy to eliminate the Iraqi nationalists so that the Iranian-backed ones can win. Its a civil war, let Freedom reign (or ring, or whatever Bush scribbled...)

It gets better: "An Iraqi security official said the British troops threw leaflets from helicopters declaring: "The Iraqi government will not be soft on terrorism" and "Maysan will not be a safe area for the Iranian Qods Force and its agents who want to weaken the Iraqi government"."

So that would be Iranian backed SCIRI (18 years + based in Iran), attacking al-Sadrs Iraqi nationalists (0 years in Iran, mocks those that fled Saddam), justifying it in the West by saying that the Iraqi nationalists are actually Iranian backed. Well, I am glad that's cleared up.

I'm reminded of the quote from the book The Freedom in which an Iraqi notes that Iraq "now has the murder-freedom, the rape-freedom and the stealing-freedom"...

[Bill Moore]

Well said Adam, I guess some needed a reminder of reality in Iraq. As Hoffer wrote in the "True Believer" most men fear freedom. If freedom is a weapon, secret or overt, it is a weapon that has been turned very effectively against us. We need to pursue our national interests, not some Neo-con naive vision of how the world "should" work. This administration will probably go down as the worst in our history.

[ramsis]

scout: not well said! I believe pursuing our national intrest is what got us into this mess to begin with, that and the 70% of americans who cheerleaded us into it who now sit behind keyboards and cheerlead anyone who argues against it.
don't make me giggle. People queue for highly paid army / police jobs in Iraq because there's nothing else.
Adam: there is another option and that is to join the likes abdallah or thugs like him (and many do). but to the rest of the 20+ million Iraqis that reject them and the civil war they long for they have a hope for a future that is a little less pesimistic than yours unless you think they're too dim,m for democracy. "Those people" who brave some of the most brutal attacks at those recruiting centers should be given some credit, there are not many people who would stand in those lines no matter how much they may be paid.
"In other words the people in charge of the area (you know, the more-or-less-kind-of democratically elected ones) say that the dead probably were just unlucky bystanders"
Are they like the countless bystanders killed daily by insurgents? in a war civillians die, and when al-jazeera reports on it a lot of civillians die wether it's true or not.It seems to me that everytime some wacko drives his explosive laden toyota into a crowd of (heres the kicker) TARGETED CIVILLIANS! those numbers end up on al-jazeera or in some european tabloid excuse for a news angency (or rosie o'donnell)under iraqis killed because of the evil americans. i chose this article by AJ not because they're "fair and balanced" but to show you that even they have to aknowledge some realitys in Iraq no matter what spin they put on them.you can find numerous articles all over the internet at credible news agencys about ongoing joint operations involving american and iraqi military forces.
I'm reminded of the quote from the book The Freedom in which an Iraqi notes that Iraq "now has the murder-freedom, the rape-freedom and the stealing-freedom"...

sounds a lot like saddams iraq except of course it was him, his sons, and the bathist regime wich were afforded that freedom.

[Papa Ray]

What I want to know...did Time turn over all information that they gathered and help the Military find this "blow"hard?

If they didn't they need to be charged with aiding and abetting the enemy.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA