Fill a car or truck with an explosive (mortar rounds, C-4 or even simple gasoline) and initiation device (blasting cap, firecracker or a grenade) and power (usually the vehicle battery) and you have a mobile IED. You can drive it and park it where you want it, get out and detonate from a distance, or put a shaheed inside and you have a modern day Kamikaze.
Although the media seems to be keeping this calm, think for a minute about how bad it could have been. The ATF puts out this handy VBIED blast radius chart to show how big the bang might be-
While it is hard to tell from the information released so far about the composition of the device (3 propane tanks, 10 gallons of gasoline and fireworks for the initiation) it would probably fall somewhere inbetween the full size sedan and the passenger van. So a blast range of 150 feet (anyone inside this range would be hit by the overpressure wave, which blows out ear drums and causes TBI), a shrapnel range of probably 2000 feet (anyone inside that range would be subject to small bits of glass and metal moving as fast as a bullet).
Of course, the blast would have been limited by all of the buildings in Times Square, but that means that many of the buildings would have sustained heavy damage. As much as New Yorkers are fearful at this failed attack, a successful attack in the heart of New York wouldn't just kill and injure people, it would make them afraid to go out in public.
Many Americans cringed in fear on 9/11, and it took months for the country to stop looking for terrorists around every corner. But the sad truth is that Bin Laden doesn't need big shock and awe attacks. He just needs lots of little ones that make people afraid to go about their daily lives. Remember the DC sniper? Parents keeping their kids home from school, people afraid to go to work. Imagine that on a larger scale, regional or even national, and you have the potential to cripple the already ailing US economy.
For all of President Obama's talk of understanding with the Muslim world, this is a time to find the perpetrators and crush them ruthlessly. Send a signal that this wont be tolerated, otherwise we will be inviting more attacks. This minor incident (as far as the media seems concerned) could be a pivotal event in the Obama administration.
2 comments:
Your last para shows you to be TOTALLY deranged. Obama? Crush them? Totally? In your dreams...but then you're thinking logically--always a dangerous thing to do. Logic and Obamathink don't mix too well..
BTW, thanks for the handy little chart. Most people severely under-estimate the blast radius of explosives--especially you damn Army types who rubberneck when guys like me lay down a string of 500-pounders for CAS for TIC instead of covering your own sweet a** :)
FWIW I've had personal experience with car-bombs. Was stationed in the UK 69-71 during IRA business. Was down in London one weekend with a college frat. brother and his wife over for the summer European vacation thing. We had just left the movies after watching the London premier of PATTON and as we were rounding the corner at end of block a bomb set in a double-decker bus went off a few bus-lengths away. I was a few steps ahead and shoved them back around the corner, but caught some glass shards in clothing of left arm and in face. Luckily was relatively small bomb as was a carry-on, so didn't explode metal frame into shrapnel, but it set fire to bus-blew windows out and killed/wounded a few. Close-call--a few paces sooner and we would have been walking right past the bus-stop.
And your right about the psychological effect. My friends at that point decided it best not to continue "out on the town." We retired to the AF Officers's Club--the "Columbia Club" (an old mansion on Bayswater road opposite Hyde Park)--and drank a few in the cozy little Tartan Bar in the basement "bunker." LOL
FWIW I've had personal experience with car-bombs. Was stationed in the UK 69-71 during IRA business. Was down in London one weekend with a college frat. brother and his wife over for the summer European vacation thing. We had just left the movies after watching the London premier of PATTON and as we were rounding the corner at end of block a bomb set in a double-decker bus went off a few bus-lengths away. I was a few steps ahead and shoved them back around the corner, but caught some glass shards in clothing of left arm and in face. Luckily was relatively small bomb as was a carry-on, so didn't explode metal frame into shrapnel, but it set fire to bus-blew windows out and killed/wounded a few. Close-call--a few paces sooner and we would have been walking right past the bus-stop.
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