how come roadside bombs in iraq are so successful? what are the odds that a random bomb would hit anyone?
112177
The first 2 answers are ok, but- Road side bombs are a very cheap very effective means of fighting. Like sea mines. Anyway, the U.S. cannot patrol everywhere at once. These people set up the bombs and wait for us to pass. We have to use these main road ways, and they know it.
673578
I have never in my life seen it happen to anyone. If it does happen (which is like one and a billion chance of happening), you would be so lucky.
511006
They are blowing up their own people for two reasons. First, it's a media ploy. People turn on the TV, see a burning car and dead civilians with US troops all around them, they assume the US is responsible. Second, they are trying to undermine the new Iraqi government by making the Iraqi people feel like they can't protect them. Ultimately, if people were ever to know the truth about these bombings, it would be nothing more than another of the insurgent's many self-defeating tactics.
765507
99% probabilty of another 911. No one knows from where and how and with what it will strike. They are taking things beyond imagination, may be from movies. The real world is converting into real movie world. In movies every thing is possible and know in real is becoming possible.
1066138
if you make a good offer, why not , iraq is as dangerous as any place in the planet,it is a matter of faith yuo never die before your time and ,ofcourse not after!
10600
The bombers often show great imagination in their attacks on the main supply routes around Fallujah. “We even found one cemented into the underside of a bridge passing over the main highway so it would explode from above,” said Sgt Anderson. Some devices are aimed not at convoys but at his men. The most ingenious so far was a solar panel, which when the dirt covering it was brushed aside by a US soldier looking for a bomb, would be exposed to the light, complete an electrical circuit and detonate the explosives. Just once Anderson found the person at the other end of a 400-yard-long wire attached to a bomb. It turned out to be a 12-year-old boy who was taken back to his home where his father was arrested.\n\nThe main instrument used for detecting bombs is a foot-long silver-colored stick, which is in fact a titanium non-metallic mine probe. Anderson and his men walk along each side of a main road. “We look for wires — anything which is out of place,” he says. “We identify metal in the ground.” This is particularly difficult in Iraq because the sides of the roads are used as garbage dumps, making traditional metal detectors useless. Lying on the ground outside the cement huts at Volturno — before the war a Baath party resort beside a fresh water lake — are 122mm and 155mm shells, the main explosive device used by guerrillas. The point of the shell is removed and a blaster cap put in attached by wire to a battery, usually of the size used in a motorcycle. “It isn’t exactly rocket science,” said First Lt. Ron Sturgeon of the same unit. “Aside from shells, almost anything can be used, such as a fire extinguisher container which will fragment when it blows up.”\n\nThe advantage of the remote detonator such as a cell phone or a garage door opener from the point of view of the bomber is that he can stand further away. Anderson and his men know that somebody is watching them and their methods as they make their way slowly down the road. Noticing that they carefully turned over rocks some guerrilla attached a string to a stone and concealed the power source in an old plastic water bottle with wires leading to several heavy artillery shells. Signals from car alarms can be scrambled but cell phones are more difficult to intercept (in this case the bomber simply phones the number of a second phone attached to a battery to detonate the bomb).\n\nNone of Anderson’s squad knew what they were facing when they arrived in Fallujah. “When we first came out we were winging it,” said Specialist Shane Thomson. One of the many surprises for the US Army in Iraq is that the little titanium mine probe has turned out to be more useful than all its gigantic battle tanks.
163817
If there is a possiblity for this strange thing to happen this will only brings another massacre, Saddam is a dictator, not an ordinary one, he is a murderer.\nHe has used chemical weapon against Iranians and his own people and he has done a massacre against Shiia people.\nMany people has died in his prisons.\nIraqi people really hate him, thats one of the reasons Iraq conquered by US troops easily, do you remember how much resistance done in Tikrit, origin of Saddam? You should know that Tikrit is a small town around Baghdad, imagine if all cities resisted that much.
367780
25, was active Army, 25F (Network/Switching systems Op/Maint)\nI just exited the service after 6 years and 7 months (was stop loss-ed for my second Iraq tour), and the things I ask someone else that was in Iraq is where they were, what they were doing, and whether or not the local nationals nearby would "misbehave."  The answers to the first and second are always different, the third one is usually yes.\n  One thing I've learned about the news is that the news only exists where the reporters are, and it is only as good as their understanding of the situation.  There were so many things that I've witnessed that the news would mention as side notes, using the phrase "reports of..." because they didn't have anyone there.\n  One thing I've always wanted people back home to be aware of is that the situation is both worse and better than what they hear.  The news only seems to focus on US casualties, but never talks about police forces built, infrastructure repaired, people helped, anything with a positive outcome, etc.  The news also misses the significance of some of the Iraqis targeted by insurgents if no US forces were involved.  During my second deployment, I spent the majority of the time in Mosul, and it never ceased to amaze me how the insurgency would actively target local officials with the same techniques and weapons they'd use for CF (Coalition Forces).  It seemed like incidents were occurring constantly, Iraqi Army being hit with IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), police were being gunned down, sheiks (who are more or less the equivalent of an alderman here) being assassinated, sometimes with their families.   If you want a good question, consider the amount of times you are quoted the number of US soldiers killed by hostile fire, and wonder how many Iraqis are killed by the insurgency.  Not like those estimations of bystanders killed, but how many have been actively sought out and killed by the insurgency since the start, before you heard the words "sectarian violence" on the news.  That's a question I wish I knew the answer to.\n  I hope that gives you a start of sorts.  Please continue to ask more questions, and you will receive replies.
371912
Others have pointed out that it has happened here, but I don't think that's what Prof meant.  I think he meant the type of bomber that runs in explosives exposed and goes boom.\n\nThat being said, I'd like to believe that it would never happen in the USA (which is where I am from), but then again I didn't think 9/11 could ever happen and it did.  I didn't think Columbine (A massive school shooting not far from where I was during High School) would ever happen but it did (And I know that it's a semi-regular event in other parts of the country, for some reason Columbine made big news though).  So I'd like to say it would never happen, but odds are it can and will at some point.\n\nI think 9/11 made the USA realize that we aren't invincible.  I never thought we were, but I feel the mortality much more now.
1047168
This is an awesome question. I see what you mean by the tactics. Iran is surrounded. I think it may have been just dumb luck though.
482254
I just got back from Kuwait and Baghdad i spent a year going between both places. I am active army, so i know the area well.  I do not know for sure about kuwait but I do know that in Baghdad there were vendors walking along the street with gas cans offering to fill your vehicle up for 25 cents a gallon.  Cigarettes are only 50 cents a pack, however, you can get them for 35 cents if you bargain.  Those dvds that you pay 15 bucks for here cost 75 cents to a dollar there.  The american dollar goes a long way over there............and by the way for your friend who responded; there are no car bombers in kuwait, I never heard of a single one going off when I was there.  They do not pay with their lives either, Kuwait is doing allright economically and peace thrives in most of the nation.  The few circumstance we encountered were insurgents from iran, syria, and iraq crossing over to start crap, but they only did drive by's and then sped like hell.  It was rare, but a few times over a year
431282
When I was in Iraq the biggest hits were _anything_ that was home-made.\n\nSmall gadget toys (such as those puzzles you ad to figure out how to open or take apart) were something that we all liked.\n\nAnother trick is to place things in a lot of smaller unmarked boxes.  This way the pleasure of opening the package last longer as I opened every box to see what was inside.\n\nIn reality it does not really matter what you send - the fact that I got a package meant that today was a 'good day.'
417426
Some were, but others weren't. The bombing was a good thing altogether. It saved many lives for both sides in the longrun,.
913702
I got interesting answers to this question and it may be the only time I gave a Shiraz best answer\n\nHEY, you people who advocate "nuking". Do you know the effects of nuclear bombs?
369362
A higher probabilty.\n\nBecause in the 91 war, the war plans were drawn up properly with a complete set of goals in mind. IE- Push Iraq out of Kuwait. \n\nWith the war in Iraq now, the US government really messed up but won't admit it of course.
1103198
How about because they have had women freely sign up to be suicide bombers children as young as eight have been suicide bombers as well. In Iraq families are praised by their neighbors for sacrificing themselves or their children for the cause. It is always sad to see but it does happen the rules of war over there are very different from our own beliefs. And yes sadly enough some are just innocents that are killed. \nConsider though these people are usually mistakenly killed whereas they target us specifically. They have tortured, mutilated, and beheaded both men and women over there, and those people were not even a part of the war in many cases. In fact most were there as peace workers to help provide aide.
867017
after you locate dynamite and a detonator, the blast comes easy.  :^)