Oh, about those ,300 VBIED's you bought?

[Averageman]

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/09/24/us-led-airstrikes-blew-up-an-isis-car-bomb-factory-near-mosul/21240479/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-sb-bb%7Cdl5%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D-587508719

U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State on Wednesday destroyed two "significant VBIED [Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device] production facilities" near Mosul, Iraq.

VBIEDs are essentially car bombs and are one of ISIS's deadliest weapons. According to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, ISIS controls about 2,300 armored U.S. Humvees and converts them into VBIEDs.


2,300 Vbied's???
WTF? What were these guys thinking and how do you lose 2,300 HumVee's?

[Eurodriver]

It was cheaper to keep all those OIF up armored humvees there than to ship them back, so we "gave them" to the Iraqi military/police.

Who then surrendered to ISIS.

They weren't lost. They were "captured"

[Mauser KAR98K]

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/09/24/us-led-airstrikes-blew-up-an-isis-car-bomb-factory-near-mosul/21240479/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-sb-bb%7Cdl5%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D-587508719

U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State on Wednesday destroyed two "significant VBIED [Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device] production facilities" near Mosul, Iraq.

VBIEDs are essentially car bombs and are one of ISIS's deadliest weapons. According to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, ISIS controls about 2,300 armored U.S. Humvees and converts them into VBIEDs.


2,300 Vbied's???
WTF? What were these guys thinking and how do you lose 2,300 HumVee's?

Run away! Run away!

[SteyrAUG]

It was cheaper to keep all those OIF up armored humvees there than to ship them back, so we "gave them" to the Iraqi military/police.

Who then surrendered to ISIS.

They weren't lost. They were "captured"

Don't you mean donated?

[KalashniKEV]

2,300 Vbied's???

Nope.

But armored VBIEDs are an emerging threat.


WTF? What were these guys thinking and how do you lose 2,300 HumVee's?

Daesh has everything that belonged to 2nd IA Division in Mosul... and 3rd IA Division in al Kisik... and 7th IA Division in Ramadi... and...

[Irish]

We do stupid shit as a country on a consistent basis.

[glocktogo]

We do stupid shit as a country on a consistent basis.

Truer words were never spoken. :(

[TAZ]

We do stupid shit as a country on a consistent basis.

Now there is an understatment of EPIC proportions.

[MegademiC]

We do stupid shit as a country on a consistent basis.

Yes, this story sounds familiar, and I can't quite put my finger on it...

[JoshNC]

We do stupid shit as a country on a consistent basis.

True. I don't understand why a broker didn't step in, buy the equipment we were leaving and sell it on the secondary market. I would love to own an mrap.

[KingsideRook]

This is really why - and please forgive me for going on a 90 second rant here - I can't understand why we love fiddling around in the Middle East and bringing over ton-loads of dangerous stuff for some people who promise to be the good guys until two days after we mostly leave, and then surprise, they're not, or they gave/surrendered it to some total fundie nutjobs who want to murder us and anyone there who doesn't think their way, too.

When do we learn this lesson, and decide to never ever give anyone over there a single round of ammo ever again, no matter how good an idea it seems at the time? Literally the only exception might be Israel, and even then, giving aid and armament to them prevents them from setting their own policy without pressure from us - so I'm torn on that one, but flexible. But seriously, when do we stop giving the Middle East guns and bombs and then acting shocked ten years later when we're getting shot or bombed with our own stuff? I'm not old at all, and I seem to recall my recent history well enough to know how this goes.

You would think a mostly non-interventionist presidential candidate might be getting through to someone with this message - I can't be the only one who feels this way. If you know who I mean, then that's good enough. I'm all about hurting RIFs who killed our civilians here, but not for giving anything sharper than a butter knife to their relatives or neighbors ever. It seems to ever only be one bribe truckload of goats or heroin away from hitting my fellow countrymen in the armed forces, right in the face.

More and more these days, I tend to think we haven't handled this "defiant, backwards foreign culture" problem properly since 1945. Not that we can afford to do so, now...

[Benito]

This is really why - and please forgive me for going on a 90 second rant here - I can't understand why we love fiddling around in the Middle East and bringing over ton-loads of dangerous stuff for some people who promise to be the good guys until two days after we mostly leave, and then surprise, they're not, or they gave/surrendered it to some total fundie nutjobs who want to murder us and anyone there who doesn't think their way, too.

When do we learn this lesson, and decide to never ever give anyone over there a single round of ammo ever again, no matter how good an idea it seems at the time? Literally the only exception might be Israel, and even then, giving aid and armament to them prevents them from setting their own policy without pressure from us - so I'm torn on that one, but flexible. But seriously, when do we stop giving the Middle East guns and bombs and then acting shocked ten years later when we're getting shot or bombed with our own stuff? I'm not old at all, and I seem to recall my recent history well enough to know how this goes.

You would think a mostly non-interventionist presidential candidate might be getting through to someone with this message - I can't be the only one who feels this way. If you know who I mean, then that's good enough. I'm all about hurting RIFs who killed our civilians here, but not for giving anything sharper than a butter knife to their relatives or neighbors ever. It seems to ever only be one bribe truckload of goats or heroin away from hitting my fellow countrymen in the armed forces, right in the face.

More and more these days, I tend to think we haven't handled this "defiant, backwards foreign culture" problem properly since 1945. Not that we can afford to do so, now...

I would agree, in so far as fiddling around is exactly what we are doing (on a broad political scale - I know that the guys on the ground are not fiddling, and don't mean to lump them in with the testicularly-challenged leadership).
The West's dealings with Islam have been extremely anemic and half-assed at best.
We need to kick it old school with Islam - WWI style old school. Total war. No reconstruction until the enemy is routed. No pauses in bombing during Ramadan and other bullshit. No absurd ROE's that give the enemy all the incentive to keep playing us for fools. No malicious prosecution of our own soldiers for doing their jobs. No freaking out over burned Qurans and pissed-on bodies of enemy pedophiles. No running soldiers out of the military for calling out pedophilia among our "allies".
I am sick of losing.

[KalashniKEV]

...I can't understand why we love fiddling around in the Middle East...

More and more these days, I tend to think we haven't handled this "defiant, backwards foreign culture" problem properly since 1945. Not that we can afford to do so, now...

Interesting plot twist to that rant.

The problem, as someone else stated so perfectly in a recent thread, is that we can either win, or lose... whatever. Just like we could maybe go, or not go... who cares?


We need to kick it old school with Islam - WWI style old school. Total war.

The problem with that idea, being that it is the Middle East and all, is that all the heroes and the villains in the story are Muslims. Any great white hero is only supporting cast. Any muscular intervention is only a brief chapter... in a land as old as time itself...

[KingsideRook]

Interesting plot twist to that rant.

The problem, as someone else stated so perfectly in a recent thread, is that we can either win, or lose... whatever. Just like we could maybe go, or not go... who cares?



The problem with that idea, being that it is the Middle East and all, is that all the heroes and the villains in the story are Muslims. Any great white hero is only supporting cast. Any muscular intervention is only a brief chapter... in a land as old as time itself...

I don't think we materially disagree. Simply put, I prefer we stay out entirely, but if we must fight on foreign soil, do so to win. No half measures, as stated. If it's impossible to win on foot, due to terrain(harshest we've known possibly, in Afghanistan) or a culture stuck forever in the centuries post, then glass it. That's a horribly unpopular, un-pc thing to say, but I finally mean it.

Of course, that's an idealist taking. We're actually compromised, and the Fundie Sauds who nurtured the 9/11 hijackers in their bosoms, are our allies, and we could never harm them, because diplomacy and relationships and oil, so nothing changes.

Imagine, what if we'd already taken to buying cheap knock-offs of desirable items from the Japanese when they attacked? Would we find the balls, as a nation, to declare war or are we too addicted to $3 plastic laundry baskets at Wal-mart? Find out next time, on China.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Interesting plot twist to that rant.

The problem, as someone else stated so perfectly in a recent thread, is that we can either win, or lose... whatever. Just like we could maybe go, or not go... who cares?



The problem with that idea, being that it is the Middle East and all, is that all the heroes and the villains in the story are Muslims. Any great white hero is only supporting cast. Any muscular intervention is only a brief chapter... in a land as old as time itself...

My model for a lasting peace in the ME is a Thirty Years War. It stopped our intra-faith blood letting. Hopefully it will end before they get to the levels of decimation that happened in central Europe.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

It was cheaper to keep all those OIF up armored humvees there than to ship them back, so we "gave them" to the Iraqi military/police.

Who then surrendered to ISIS.

They weren't lost. They were "captured"

If only we had factored in the missile or bomb that we have to fire now to take them out..... Sure, it was cheaper to leave them....

[MistWolf]

Leaving them behind wasn't as cheap as letting the Lords of Surplus buy them up and ship them back to used car lots and Army Surplus stores. But I guess the .gov is worried about what kind of mischief the average American would get into with all that war surplus gear

[glocktogo]

The people involved in the decision to abandon them over there should be prosecuted for gov't wast, fraud and abuse. :mad:

[rjacobs]

I would find it very funny if these up armored humvee's that were turned into bombs completely contained the blast and only killed those inside and a little smoke seeps out the joints.

[Whiskey_Bravo]

I would find it very funny if these up armored humvee's that were turned into bombs completely contained the blast and only killed those inside and a little smoke seeps out the joints.

like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBXXtvyZaVY

[cbx]

This whole thing is so stupid. Ship freight is stupid cheap...... Especially when you own the ship's, like our Navy...... What a concept....... More like What ass hatery really...