Reply #3: Sounds completely in line with what I've heard from all over. [View All]

[Kagemusha]

It's not that there was no one in Iraq who knew how to make a shaped charge but, to make an insurgency work, these skills need to filter down to the front 'lines' (of sorts) so that the B-team and the C-team are dangerous too, so that you don't risk losing the really good people much... and turn your farm system people into real players. Somehow they've hit a critical mass. Also consider that for a long time the insurgents were willing to tolerate worse IED's because vehicle armor wasn't better across the board. So, "supply" met "demand".