Iraq commander says attacks now more costly for insurgents

Associated Press ^ | 10-27-03

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Tikrit, Iraq-AP -- The commander of the Army's Fourth Infantry Division in Tikrit, Iraq, is measuring success in dollars.

Major General Ray Odierno (oh-dee-EHR'-noh) says relentless pressure from coalition forces is making it more expensive for insurgents to fund attacks, and forcing them to change their tactics.

He says when the Fourth Infantry arrived in Iraq, people were paid 100 dollars to attack coalition forces, and 500 dollars if they were successful. Now, he says attackers are demanding up to two-thousand dollars just to attack.

Odierno says the price has gone up because fewer people are willing to attack U-S forces head on -- afraid of taking a lot of casualties. He expects to see more roadside bombings and more attacks on civilian targets like the Red Cross, which was targeted today.

[capydick]

Now there's a metric for ya.....

[First_Salute]

the quarterly report, the numbers are in

[68skylark]

I think I read a news article from last May or June (after our forces had been in Iraq just a month or two) that said the cost for attacking coalition military had risen from $500 to $2,000. If my memory is correct, then the price hasn't risen since then.

[gov_bean_ counter]

And they said the free market wouldn't work in Iraq.

[Thud]

ping

[Prodigal Son]

I sponsor a monkey in the Edinburgh Zoo. I go there and watch him sometimes. I both pity and envy him. I pity him because he is caged in behind plexiglass when he is so clearly created to roam free in the treetops. I hold up my keys or cigarette lighter to the glass at times so he can have something novel to look at- he likes it. But where I envy him is he never puts his life's value or progress in terms of dollars and cents even though my charity has inevitably done so. My donation gets my name on the Zoo's "honor roll". The monkey just likes to look at my keys though. He isn't half as interested in a pound coin.

I guess it's pointless to rue the fact that we so often use money as a useful measure for how things are going. It's just the human in us I suppose. Hopefully we can get that bounty up so high nobody will have the funds to pay for American deaths.

[Kosh5]

Seems to me that capitalism triumphs again...