But goddammit, it’s taking the terrorists more IEDs than ever before to blow up a given number of American soldiers. And that’s progress.
How come we don’t read more positive stories like that in the mainstream media?
Back to Main
November 2, 2005
WB: Metrics
Comments
The metrics are even worse on the US side:
US forced to import bullets from Israel as troops use 250,000 for every rebel killed
US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan – an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed – that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand. As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel.
A government report says that US forces are now using 1.8 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition a year. The total has more than doubled in five years, largely as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as changes in military doctrine.
…
John Pike, director of the Washington military research group GlobalSecurity.org, said that, based on the GAO’s figures, US forces had expended around six billion bullets between 2002 and 2005. “How many evil-doers have we sent to their maker using bullets rather than bombs? I don’t know,” he said.
“If they don’t do body counts, how can I? But using these figures it works out at around 300,000 bullets per insurgent. Let’s round that down to 250,000 so that we are underestimating.”
Pointing out that officials say many of these bullets have been used for training purposes, he said: “What are you training for? To kill insurgents.”
.50-caliber ammo used so much that supplies run low
U.S. troops in Iraq are firing .50-caliber machine guns at such a high rate, the Army is scrambling to resupply them with ammunition – in some cases dusting off crates of World War II machine gun rounds and shipping them off to combat units.
…
Above the staccato crackle and squeak of small arms fire, the fiddy-cal’s distinctive “THUMP THUMP THUMP” indicates that its 1.6-ounce bullets, exactly the weight of eight quarters, are going downrange at 2,000 mph. The bullets are said to be able to stop an onrushing car packed with deadly explosives dead in its tracks from a mile away. A .50-cal round can travel four miles, generally not with great accuracy.
…
The Army surged production of new .50-cal ammunition, taking on more than 1,000 new workers at its Lake City ammunition plant in Independence, Mo.
“Fifty-cal is crazy,” said Bryce Hallowell, spokesman for Alliant Techsystems Inc., the contractor that runs the plant. Four years ago, Lake City was manufacturing about 10 million rounds a year; currently it is producing at an annual rate of 50 million rounds and rising.
Even that fivefold increase hasn’t been enough.
O great Creator of being
Grant us one more hour to
Perform our art and
Perfect our lives
A ship leaves port
Mean horse of another thicket
Wishbone of desire
Decry the metal fox
The Doors
[the rest is here:
http://tinyurl.com/athxp%5D
Can you feel it … again?
Posted by: tante aime | Nov 2 2005 6:47 utc | 2
Tante: That sounds like one of those J M from beyond the grave spoken poetry journal songs. Are those part of the lyrics from a song when they were still a rock band era?
Posted by: christofay | Nov 2 2005 6:56 utc | 3
Can’t think of a response that’s not snarky or bitter. Olbermann recently admired a young girl who shot a black bear for sport, I just watched (and enjoyed) an old Bruce Willis shoot ’em up, we (America) are arms dealer to the world and using our own product – what’s with the violence of humans, anyway?
http://www.birdnature.com/allupperflyways.html
http://www.birdnature.com/Flyways.jpg
http://www.usda.gov/nass/aggraphs/brlmap.htm
Minneapolis-St Paul is avian flu’s first
light, and Little Rock is its ground zero.
They say it shows up in pigeons first.
Posted by: Over Soon | Nov 2 2005 7:17 utc | 5
Civilian contractors in Iraq dying at faster rate as insurgency grows
Odd juxtaposition of person killed below ad of a Thanksgiving Turkey.
“But using these figures it works out at around 300,000 bullets per insurgent. Let’s round that down to 250,000 so that we are underestimating.”
How much does a bullet cost these days?
No doubt about the “fragging thing” now.
One witness had quoted Martinez as telling him on two occasions: “I am going to frag (kill) him (Esposito),” but the defense said these comments were of a “venting nature” only.
Martinez is being held in a military jail in Kuwait.
In April, U.S. Sergeant Hasan Akbar was convicted of murdering two officers by rolling grenades into their tents in Kuwait on the eve of the invasion that toppled Saddam. Akbar has since been sentenced to death, the first U.S. soldier convicted of murdering a colleague in war since Vietnam.
link
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 2 2005 9:22 utc | 8
A related note.
I listen to Fox sports talk radio (it’s an illness, I know). On the news yesterday, paraphrasing, US military says it is getting better at finding and neutralizing the IED’s, great progress is being made, oh and by the way, seven dead from such devices over the weekend.
Has it always been like this, or are these really weird times?
Posted by: James E. Powell | Nov 2 2005 13:32 utc | 10
Metrics…
The stubborn insurgency in western Iraq can be brought “to an acceptable level,” but that effort is going to depend on building Iraqi security forces and gaining the confidence of the people in the region, a top Marine Corps general said Tuesday.
Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said he couldn’t estimate the level of support that insurgents have in Sunni-dominated al Anbar province, where U.S. troops are frequently attacked. But he suggested that the insurgency wouldn’t subside until the “thugs and intimidators” behind it were eliminated from the local populace, which only Iraqi forces can accomplish.
–Drew Brown, Knight-Ridder
Speaking of “thugs and intimidators,” a timeless question …
“How can I make them fear me more than the insurgency?”
–Lt. Col. Ross Brown
Posted by: Anonymous | Nov 2 2005 15:41 utc | 11
Seriously, how much is it costing us, in parts and labor, to kill a “haji.” Multiply that by 1.3 billion and then the realist Republicans and Paleo-cons can argue that we can’t afford it, and the Democrats can argue that they can save money by killing more efficiently.
Oh, they are doing that already……..
New Yorker finally posted Entire text of Goldberg’s piece last week on Scowcroft: Breaking Ranks: What Turned Scowcroft Against Bu$h
Posted by: jj | Nov 2 2005 19:27 utc | 13