Сounterinsurgency

Growing Terrorist Threat Requires New U.S. Investments in Counter-IED Capabilities

Once upon a time, the U.S. military thought it was pretty much through having to deal with large scale, protracted counterinsurgency operations. That is what it was told by the Pentagon in the 2010 Defense Strategic Guidance and the 2012 Quadrennial Defense Review. It followed that no more counterinsurgencies meant a significantly reduced danger from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the singular threat that confronted U.S. and Coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. At one time during the U.S. military involvement in those two countries, IEDs were responsible for more than 60 percent of U.S. casualties. A massive, focused effort, centered on the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), was able to reduce the IED threat by more than half. The post-Iraq/Afghanistan military didn’t see the need nor did it have the funds to invest in advanced counter-IED capabilities. JIEDDO was initially downsized and renamed the Joint IED Defeat Agency (JIDA), and there is an effort underway by some in Congress to bury the new organization within some larger entity.