Learning to fight the fight this time.

Waging war in Iraq is different, not impossible. Read and learn, kiddies, from The Washington Times' Inside The Ring column.

IED update
Countering homemade bombs and other explosives in Iraq remains the top priority of U.S. and allied forces.

The devices have been used with deadly effect to kill and maim U.S. forces. To deal with the problem, the Pentagon has set up an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Task Force to figure out ways to defeat roadside and other bombs. The budget is more than $1 billion.

"IEDs are the most lethal threat we face here," one senior officer in Baghdad said. "This is very much a battle we're fighting every day."

According to military officials in Baghdad, the terrorists are using at least three types of triggers for IEDs, including infrared-signaled garage-door openers, infrared automobile car-lock openers and hard-wired bombs. All are set off when vehicles move through a target area.

To counter the threat, the military has been using broadband radio-signal jammers. But the jammers create other problems; namely, they also disrupt communications used by military forces.

Navy Capt. Chris Field, commander of the Pacific Fleet's electronic attack wing, said in a speech Oct. 24 that EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare jets are being used in Iraq to disrupt IED signals, along with other terrorist communications.


Learning lessons
British historian Nigel West said yesterday that the U.S. military in Iraq could learn a lot from British military counterintelligence operations in Northern Ireland against the terrorist campaign of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

British intelligence scored impressive successes that led to the defeat of the IRA's terrorist campaign through the use of a combination of technology and human intelligence operations, said Mr. West, a counterintelligence specialist.

As a result, about 85 percent of IRA terrorist bombings and killings were stopped in advance, and 40 percent of the group's leaders were identified or jailed.

"This is a rate of attrition that no terrorist organization can take," Mr. West said in a breakfast speech before the American Bar Association. "It is effective. It takes a long time to develop the kind of skills that are required. But the truth is the West has acquired so much technology and knowledge against Soviet targets, it is perfectly possible to beat and penetrate the terrorist target."

One key lesson for Iraq, Mr. West said, is for U.S. troops to limit the time they set up vehicle checkpoints to no longer than 20 minutes. The Brits learned that IRA terrorists could locate a military checkpoint in 10 minutes and then take 10 to 15 minutes to get their weapons and explosives and launch an attack.

The rule is to set up a checkpoint, based on intelligence that terrorists may be passing through, and then move to another site quickly.