The Evolution of Warfare

Consider this account of one of DAESH’s tactics used in capturing Ramadi:

The State Department is sharing new details about the deadly fighting in Ramadi, Iraq, last Sunday, saying the city fell into ISIS hands after the militant group set off 30 suicide car bombs in the city center, 10 of which each were comparable in power to the Oklahoma City truck bomb of 1995.

The explosions took out “entire city blocks,” said a senior State Department official who spoke to reporters at the State Department Wednesday on condition that he not be named. The vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, or VBIEDs, were able to gain access to the city center after an armored bulldozer plowed through T-wall barricades lining the city’s critical government buildings, the official said, adding that the same bulldozer was later used as a power VBIED, itself.

Soon after the bombs went off, the Iraqis deployed a reinforcing column into the city center, but they were forced to retreat after coming under heavy enemy fire, the official said. That retreat led to a larger exodus of Iraqi security forces and the civilian populations, leaving the streets looking “barren,” according to this official.

Let’s consider what they were doing there. Their use of “suicide car bombs” replicates our own use of laser-guided bombs and missiles, except that they’re much cheaper (as long as you don’t count the cost of your suicide bombers in the cost). No wonder DAESH is advertising for suicide bombers.

And in an urban setting it’s tremendously more effective. Their “martyrs” are able to mingle and move freely among a city’s population in a way in which our special forces never will.

5 comments… add one
  • jan Link

    One can only imagine what the citizen response would be if/when such maneuvers are employed in a major U.S. civic center.

    But, again, nothing to worry about as it’s all happening “over there” until it happens over here.

  • TastyBits Link

    ISIS has been a different beast from day one, but you cannot convince the delusional hawks. Like many arm-chair generals, they are fighting using the tactics of previous wars. (Few of them even understand how the US has evolved its tactics over the past 10 years.)

    ISIS is taking tanks and other military hardware that requires specific knowledge to use, employ, and keep up. A broken down M1A1 Abrams tank is worthless. Ditto, if you do not know how to deploy it. They would never be able to stand up against a modern army (US, Europe, Russia, China, etc.), but they are good enough against other Arabs.

    They are not playing to an American or Western audience. Their proclamations against the West have a bolted-on, half-hearted, or after-the-fact quality about them. If ISIS were to be handed a US city, they would be like the dog that caught the car. “Now what?”

    At some point they will need to cull the number of people and plots aligning themselves with ISIS. The failures will redound back upon them, and they do not need it. The only purpose the US serves is to resupply them.

    The meddlers have turned Libya into a terrorist Disneyland, and they are on the brink of Syria becoming a terrorist Disney World. If Assad had not been hounded about being a horrible person and human rights violator, he could have taken care of ISIS in a few weeks. Problem solved.

    My two hounds weigh 7 and 11 pounds, but there are people who are terrified of them. They could drop kick them across the house, but if somebody starts acting like they are 150lb rottweilers, they start believing they are 150lb rottweilers. Then, I have to remind them who is the boss, and I have to spend an hour putting a 11lb dog back and forth into “time-out” until he realizes he is a still a chihuahua.

    The crazy person who was going to shoot up the movie theater, mall. school, etc. is still going to do it, but he is going to claim he did it because of ISIS. A crazy person is a crazy person. AC/DC, ISIS, GTA-5, or a Batman movie make a person crazy.

  • ... Link

    Man, I still can’t believe how clueless the ‘critics’ were about AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill”. AC/DC are exactly subtle with their lyrics (they’ve done some of the best single-entendre songs in rock’n’roll history) and yet they still managed to confound the critics.

    As for ISIS, at least they remember that warfare is politics by other means. It seems many of the hawks here have forgotten that essential point.

  • ... Link

    AREN’T exactly subtle, AREN’T!

  • steve Link

    Have to wonder about the long term viability of a plan that involves destroying so much of the city you intend to occupy. I have always thought that (read Bing West) that one of the factors in the success of the surge, besides ethnic cleansing, was the persistent brutality of AQI while we pulled back some on torture and less indiscriminate killings/jailings. It made us a viable alternative for the SOIs. That, plus we paid them.

    Steve

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