The Unstoppable IED [GREAT analysis]

The Belmont Club | Wretchard

[68skylark]

The permalink is here.

The destructive capacity ascribed to the biplane bombers of the day approached that later attributed to nuclear weapons during the Cold War and so terrified politicians that it fueled the policy of appeasement.

This is a fascinating sentence. I didn't know this, and it really helps explain a lot.

[AppyPappy]

The machine gun was considered so horrible that it prevented wars from occuring.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

The machine gun was considered so horrible that it prevented wars from occuring.

"AK-47. When you positively, absolutely, have to kill every mofo in the room." - Samuel L. Jackson.

[denydenydeny]

Brilliant piece, as always, from Wretchard.

And I love the fittingly named Joint Improvised Explosive Device Neutralizer (JIN).

[eureka!]

bump

[Andrewksu]

ping

[beebuster2000]

great post

[Boundless]

> The machine gun was considered so horrible that
> it prevented wars from occuring.

Going at least back to Dr. Gatling (US Civil War), who
thought his rudimentary machine gun would make war
unthinkable.

Instead, an electric motor was grafted to his invention
a century later, because it allowed a higher rate of
fire than single-barrel machine guns.

[Van Jenerette]

...reading file.

[johnny7]

“Shotgun... should'a brought a shotgun.” -Vincent Vega

[narby]

The asymmetrical warfare we're facing now is we're using our military, and they're using our media.

We lost Vietnam that way and we're about to do it again.

Our first amendment is our Achilles heal.

[narby]

heal = heel

[JamesP81]

The penalty for raising weaponry to a higher standard is making existing stock somewhat obsolete. Yet a more fundamental problem may be in store for the enemy. By engaging America in a technological arms race of sorts they are playing to its strengths.

Absolutely. If they get into a war of attrition based on sophistication of weapons, we will destroy them easily.

[oolatec]

Anyone have a link? A search at Belmont Club didn't turn up anything.

[oolatec]

Oops... nevermind. I forgot he moved to a new address.

http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/

[Enchante]

Alfred Nobel thought that TNT and other more potent explosives would make war 'unthinkable'..... then lots of people thought that aerial bombing would make war 'unthinkable'.....then lots of people thought the advent of nuclear weapons meant the end of war....except that people keep right on fighting and killing despite all the good wishes of naive liberals. Oh, and on the legalistic front, the "Kellog-Briand Pact" in the 1920s outlawed war forever, but someone forgot to tell Hitler and Mussolini and Tojo and Ho Chi Minh and Saddam..... etc. etc.

[68skylark]

Our first amendment is our Achilles heal.

Well I'd say the First Amendment is a two-edged sword. On balance we're much better off with it than we'd be without it.

[konaice]

Yet a more fundamental problem may be in store for the enemy. By engaging America in a technological arms race of sorts they are playing to its strengths. The relative decline in IED effectivity suggests the enemy, while improving, has not kept up.

In spite of this clue to the true situation, the writer insists on playing up the FUD factor.

The idea that a bunch of 6th grade educated camel jockeys will forever hold the upper hand is the one he wants you com come away with, rather than the very examples he cites of previous asymmetrical weapons being turned into major power advantage.

The "man-made lightning" of the Ionatron is just a Wright Brothers version of the weapon likely to be developed. More likley, area denial versions of this will appear, making it fatal to even drive a suicide vehicle.

But the jihadists are rather short of physicists.

[calex59]

Even without the motor, the Gatling was better than the single barrel gun in many ways, the main one being that the barrels wouldn't overheat and have to be replaced the way single barrels do. However, they were quite heavy and hard to pack around.

[burzum]

Actually nuclear weapons are the only weapon that you have listed that have succeeded in their purpose. Since the advent of nuclear weapons there has been no hot war started between major world powers. The probability of war between two nuclear armed countries has dropped dramatically. The idea of the powder keg igniting a world war is now almost a foreign concept. It has been 60 years since a major war between world powers, and the fact that war has not broken out is not for lack of reasons. It is because the nuclear weapon is so many orders of magnitude more destructive than any other weapon. Those who advocate use of nuclear weapons today truly do not know their power and destructiveness.