Comments on: IEDs and the futility of increased armor http://www.dbskeptic.com/2009/11/01/ieds-and-the-futility-of-increased-armor/ Skepticism. Critical thinking. Podcast. Community. Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:46:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: znix http://www.dbskeptic.com/2009/11/01/ieds-and-the-futility-of-increased-armor/comment-page-1/#comment-5224 znix Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:45:17 +0000 http://www.dbskeptic.com/?p=1601#comment-5224 IED? Belligerents? Such impotent sanitized words. The real words are bombs and freedom fighters. Obviously the US won't agree with freedom fighters, and they don't like the word "bomb" because it has too much emotional impact to hear our family members and friends got ripped to shreds by bombs. IED is so much nicer (really, it is. Public relations carefully picked that word for a reason) :-/ IED? Belligerents?
Such impotent sanitized words. The real words are bombs and freedom fighters.
Obviously the US won’t agree with freedom fighters, and they don’t like the word “bomb” because it has too much emotional impact to hear our family members and friends got ripped to shreds by bombs. IED is so much nicer (really, it is. Public relations carefully picked that word for a reason) :-/

]]> By: Bob Allen http://www.dbskeptic.com/2009/11/01/ieds-and-the-futility-of-increased-armor/comment-page-1/#comment-4951 Bob Allen Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:56:20 +0000 http://www.dbskeptic.com/?p=1601#comment-4951 Hi James, You write a good article that makes a great deal of sense.  An (not exclusive) issue in it all of this is the I of IED.  Improvisation will always trump expensive, and late arriving (secondary to R&D, etc) responses. Obviously, the “original” IEDs found direction from following logistic ramifications.  In like manner, counter-IED response, as you rightly point out, follows different logistic paths.  Improvised responses, of course, will tend to follow logistics. Moreover – a physical arms race frequently follows new improvisations to counter-IED response.  This of course implies several courses of further response.  One response is a typical capitalistic arms race – too much, too late – but eventually timely vis-à-vis physical profit.  Another response is tactical with a physical component – a variation on the merely physical arms race.  Another response is tactical with a minimal physical component – which includes both logistics that are more sophisticated and Political manipulations. I don’t currently have suggestions on either sophisticated logistics, or Political manipulations – however, I do believe that the typical physical arms race response finds doom within failure. Bob Allen Hi James,

You write a good article that makes a great deal of sense.  An (not exclusive) issue in it all of this is the I of IED.  Improvisation will always trump expensive, and late arriving (secondary to R&D, etc) responses.

Obviously, the “original” IEDs found direction from following logistic ramifications.  In like manner, counter-IED response, as you rightly point out, follows different logistic paths.  Improvised responses, of course, will tend to follow logistics.

Moreover – a physical arms race frequently follows new improvisations to counter-IED response.  This of course implies several courses of further response.  One response is a typical capitalistic arms race – too much, too late – but eventually timely vis-à-vis physical profit.  Another response is tactical with a physical component – a variation on the merely physical arms race.  Another response is tactical with a minimal physical component – which includes both logistics that are more sophisticated and Political manipulations.

I don’t currently have suggestions on either sophisticated logistics, or Political manipulations – however, I do believe that the typical physical arms race response finds doom within failure.

Bob Allen

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