War Is Boring

“We think it works,” Army 1st Lieutenant Derek Austin told me in February 2006. He was talking about the radio jammers his unit used to block the signals that detonate many Improvised Explosive Devices, the biggest killer of U.S. troops in Iraq. Last year the Pentagon spent no less than $2 billion on IED countermeasures. [...]

“For a few months during the summer of 2004, the journalist David Axe shadowed the Gamecock Battalion, an ROTC unit located at the University of South Carolina. He then spent countless hours in follow-up interviews discussing the cadets’ experiences stretching back to 2001.” So begins Paul Thacker’s Q&A with me over at Inside Higher Education: [...]

“An Iraqi army brigade based in the northern Kurdish region is undergoing intensive training in urban combat and will be dispatched to Baghdad as part of a new joint U.S.-Iraqi security drive in the sprawling and violence-ridden city, the commander said Saturday.” So reports the Associated Press. The report continues: “The brigade is one of [...]

Slate runs a round-up of the best Iraq war comics. WAR FIX makes the list. Check it out.

Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia — The Navy command responsible for testing bomb-disposal tactics and equipment for the entire U.S. military recently hosted its first annual “Explosive Ordnance Disposal Top Tech Challenge,” a three-day slate of competitions for Navy bomb squads. EOD Training and Evaluation Unit Two, part of Naval Expeditionary Combat Command headquartered [...]

Here’s the link.