Stopping IEDs - Gaming, training communities step up

摘要

Improvised explosive devices have killed more than 1,700 U.S. troops in Iraq -- about 41 percent of all American war dead, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count Web site. Many U.S. officials have come to view IEDs as strategic weapons because of their effect on morale thousands of miles away. "Its purpose is to wear [down] the will of the fighting force and the support of the people back home," said Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, commander of the Pentagon's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO). One of JIEDDO's thrusts is to use realistic training to improve the ability of U.S. forces and local allies to handle the IED threat. Fifteen percent of JIEDDO's annual budget is devoted to counter-IED training.