A stray thought on carbombings in Iraq
"Spectacular" carbombings were significantly down last month. I see two contributing reasons.
1) In its current operations, the US is having some success rooting out (or at least dislocating) many of the established assembly facilities in the areas surrounding Baghdad. They can certainly be reestablished elsewhere, but that will take a little time.
2) The carbombers are holding back. With Petraeus' report due in September, a politically savvy enemy would want to load as much mayhem as they can into the 4 to 6 weeks ahead of the report, and conducting bombings now would risk revealing the assembly points and networks to the operations mentioned above.
I would guess that both of this are contributing factors, but here's hoping it's mostly the former.
1) In its current operations, the US is having some success rooting out (or at least dislocating) many of the established assembly facilities in the areas surrounding Baghdad. They can certainly be reestablished elsewhere, but that will take a little time.
2) The carbombers are holding back. With Petraeus' report due in September, a politically savvy enemy would want to load as much mayhem as they can into the 4 to 6 weeks ahead of the report, and conducting bombings now would risk revealing the assembly points and networks to the operations mentioned above.
I would guess that both of this are contributing factors, but here's hoping it's mostly the former.
posted by mikevotes at
9:07 AM
4 Comments:
i think the bombers tend to melt away and then resurface.
By
Anonymous, at 9:19 AM
That's largely my opinion unfortunately. The military tends to describe these facilities as "car bomb factories" but they're not nearly that complex.
Really it's just a secure garage and, depending on the sophistication, some autobody tools.
If you have the know how, personnel, or manuals, it's not like these operations can't be easily moved if you have a secure house to go to.
By
mikevotes, at 9:28 AM
What about the weather? It's a 120 during the day. Gotta think crowds are smaller in those kinds of conditions. I notice that U.S. military casualties have tended to fall during June, July and August in the last 4 years too. Makes me think summer isn't conducive to all-out mayhem.
By
Reality-Based Educator, at 9:44 AM
That's a good point. I didn't even look at the historical stuff.
By
mikevotes, at 11:46 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home