[archy]

I'm extremely pleased that the crew was saved, but $2 million complete writeoffs every time some wacko out there puts a pipe bomb or whatever in the street adds up. I wonder why they can't either make them cheaper or make them more robust.

The same 12 dollar Russian TM-46 or TM-57 or AmericanM15 or M19 20-pound antitank mine that can cripple an Abrams tank is going to do a lot more than a minimalist terrorist's pipe bomb. And if command detonated by wire or radio, especially if two mines [20 pounds each, one in either hand] are stacked atop each other, the blast is even more likely to kill the 2-million dollar vehicle, if not the crew. And if the external fuel tanks rupture, particularly while the crew is under fire, someone's really in trouble.

For less than $25, somebody can kill a 2 million dollar vehicle. And eventually, they'll learn to add a couple of Claymore antipersonnel mines for when the crews bail out. I hear the going bonus rate for so killing a vehicle load of Americans is around a thousand bucks.

Maybe someday we'll learn to pay a decent bounty for the terrorist sappers....

-archy-/-

[Travis McGee]

#26: Exactly. The enemy will always be able to come up with clever ways to attack our million dollar platforms with $100 command detonated or otherwise initiated IEDs.

The real war has to be fought after midnight, taking these guys out in their homes based on intell. If we can't do that, we're going to be ground down in the long run. We have to make being an "insurgent" a hopeless calling. This can be done, but only if we are sufficiently ruthless.