Innovations In War

This article is actually about medical innovations occurring in military hospitals in Iraq. However, the following statement also makes clear that our opponents are also constantly innovating.

To punctuate his remarks, the base's warning siren sounds, and a recorded voice intones, "Incoming. Incoming. Incoming." In the E.R., medical staffers nonchalantly lay aside scalpels, intubation tubes, anesthesia drips, to don helmets and armored vests before returning to work. Somewhere on the far side of the base, four staggered mortar explosions resound. The only surprise, one trauma doctor tells me later, is that the blasts were spread out over several seconds. "Usually, they're bangbangbang."

The next morning, an explanation. The enemy has perfected a new ploy: placing mortar tubes into buckets of water, which are then frozen and planted near the wire in the middle of the night. When the morning sun melts the water, the mortars drop, hit the bottom of the metal buckets, and fire. Because the pails vary in size, the water melts at different rates, producing the staggered firing effect.

Simply amazing...