War Handwavium

Someone is trying to Tonkin the Iranians.

This article is an example: “U.S. forces may be close to unlocking the mystery of who is behind a deadly innovation in Iraqi insurgents’ weapons, a ‘lob bomb’”

What’s a ‘lob bomb’? It’s a rocket, most commonly 107mm in diameter, with a range of around 8,500 meters (5 miles), a total weight of 19 kg (41 pounds), and an explosive charge of 1.3 kg (3 pounds) of TNT. This article contains some specs on one common example of these rockets.

What’s so different about a “lob bomb”? Iraq insurgents commonly use mortars. 60mm mortars have a range from 1000 to 3,500 meters (0.5 to 2.0 miles), and a total weight of 1 to 2 kg (2 to 4 pounds). Both motars and rockets are unguided, so generally only work against large targets, like an entire base. Mortars can be fairly consistent, though, from one shot to the next, so an insurgent might fire a mortar round from a distance, and then another insurgent might act as forward observer using a radio or cell phone and dial the rounds in. However, if the US forces have Counter Battery Radar, then radar can pinpoint the position of the mortar and send troops to counter attack.

Rockets are different in that they can be set up to fire several shots at once, such as four to twelve rockets. And they can be set up to fire either by remote control or by timer. But they’re still unguided, and since they’re fired all at once, or if they’re fired by timer or remote, there is no “dialing in” as with a mortar. This means they’re only about as effective as mortar rounds are, just applied differently.

So the article says there is a mystery as to who is behind the “innovation”. First of all, it isn’t an innovation. Insurgents have been using rockets for a while. And there isn’t much mystery as to where they come from. As this article points out, “A U.S. explosives expert, Maj. Marty Weber, confirmed in April 2007 that most 107mm rockets found in Iraq were Chinese-made.” So, insurgents have been using rockets since before April 2007, and most of those rockets are made in china.

So, why does the article call it an “innovation” when it’s been around from the beginning of the insurgency? Why do they say it is a “mystery” as to where these rockets are coming from when they knew the source over a year ago or more?

Later on in that same article: “American officers said in interviews that the group is Shiite and may have links to Iran.”

Well, it’s no mystery that Bush Jr. has been beating his little war drum to fight Iran for some time, and it seems that now someone is trying to Tonkin the Iranians so we can bomb, bomb, bomb. Bomb bomb Iran.

Just remember, the Administration that is telling you now (2008) that Iran is shipping arms to Iraqi insurgents to be used against US troops, is the SAME Administration who lied to you in March 2003 that Saddam had a massive stockpile of WMD’s, was linked with al Queda, and was behind 9/11.