The flow of information
The last couple of weeks I have been able to get out some, do a air assault mission from a helicopter and help the Iraqi Army nab a few bad guys. But now my unit is back on red cycle again and I’m back in the company communications center. The good thing is that during red cycle, I can get a bit more time on the internet.
That is what I started to do today but then I started thinking about our enemy. They are an adaptive group of people who are always looking for ways to get their digs into us. Hearing about roadside bombs (IED’s) and car bombs (VBIED's) so often, you would almost think that they are an off the shelf item. The reality is that they are not, and it actually takes an intelligent guy to figure them out without blowing themselves up. So the bombs have improved.
But not all the bomb makers are relying on trial and error. Some are turning to the internet to hunt down ways of making the bombs more deadly. Years of fighting in Soviet occupied Afghanistan and clashes in Israel have already taught them many lessons. Some of the tricks I’ve heard about and had shown to me actually are impressive. You won’t find specific examples of any well designed IED’s discussed in here. As this is a global war and the internet is the link to the world, by talking about the specifics of their bombs, I might be actually giving them information that they might not find anywhere else.
All of which led me to start searching for information regarding our equipment and IED countermeasures. I started searching for specific information on how we handle roadside bombs and quickly found out about some of our more sensitive equipment and machines. The ease of which I was able to find stats on a product that could lead to its possible defeat was a little to quick for my tastes. I was surprised that not all of our newest tricks were unveiled, until I read farther about some of the equipment that is not but a year or so old. On a blog not so different than this one was a reprint and link of an article describing the equipment. But the worst part is that one of the replies to the post was a soldier writing in asking if anyone could help him find a spare part for the equipment. Not exactly the channel I would have chosen … which brings me to my advice.
Please be careful about what you blog / write about in relation to your tactics and your equipment. There is already enough information out there for people to look up without us talking about it by name in our web pages.
High: 124 degrees. Low: It is 2 AM at night and it still feels hot ouside.