Writes Sven Thommesen: “In this article in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten it is reported that the mines and bombs killing Americans in Iraq seem to be fairly sophisticated. And that’s because they are made from American recipes!
“There’s reported to be an American Army manual, Field Manual 5-31 ‘Death Traps’ which was published in 1965 and has all manner of clever ways to lay such traps. In 1987, during the Iran-Iraq war, an Arabic version of this manual was produced and distributed to Iraqi soldiers.
“Fast forward to today, where American soldiers in Iraq recognize the handiwork of the traps that are killing them.”
PS: Sven writes in to say: “A little googling reveals that those of us who are not Iraqi soldiers and/or who do not read Arabic may obtain the English-language version here for $3.96 (talk about life being cheap …).
11:37 am on May 4, 2005
