Barbarians at the gate?

 According to today’s Washington Post, Baghdad’s Shiites are increasingly using explosively formed projectiles, averaging the size of a coffee can.

 “The growing use of the projectiles is a major concern for American commanders because the weapons are powerful enough to punch through the heaviest U.S. armored vehicles, including the Abrams tank.”

I’ve always wondered what would happen to our overwhelming military superiority when the “best” technologies get trumped by far less expensive ones.  Wonder what that coffee-can sized bomb costs compared to an Abrams tank?  Seems like the Israelis got a taste of things to come last summer, when they were unable to eradicate Hezbollah but instead suffered casualties that were wholly unexpected (most likely including the present government).  Wonder what happens when billion-dollar aircraft carriers can be sunk with a thousand-dollar missile, or jet fighters downed by a laser the size of a pencil?

Maybe then we’ll have to learn how to be diplomats…

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2007/05/04/barbarians-at-the-gate/

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