NationStates Jolt Archive

(Taken from the bottom of this (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/27/iraq.main/index.html) article.)

On Wednesday, a suicide tractor bomb detonated outside the Kurdish Democratic Party office in the northern city of Sinjar, killing four Iraqi soldiers and a guard, a provincial official said.
Now, I don't mean to insult the Iraqi military or any of that, but here's a couple of handy facts about tractors.
* They don't really have any "trunk space" in which to hide explosives
* Most tractors (unless equipped with a nitrous booster - uncommon in Iraq) can go a maximum of 8 mph, meaning you could literally WALK FASTER than it could drive

So with these facts in mind, a crazy guy straps some explosives to a tractor which should be obvious even if they were covered, because ANOTHER attempted tractor bombing occured last week. He does this and proceeds to pilot this thing slower than he can run into a cluster of Iraqi troops and detonate it. As I said, I don't want to be mean, but how do you not notice something like that? :confused:

Human walking speed is about 3-5mph. They'd be able to outrun it, but not out walk it.

(Taken from the bottom of this (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/27/iraq.main/index.html) article.)


Now, I don't mean to insult the Iraqi military or any of that, but here's a couple of handy facts about tractors.
* They don't really have any "trunk space" in which to hide explosives
* Most tractors (unless equipped with a nitrous booster - uncommon in Iraq) can go a maximum of 8 mph, meaning you could literally WALK FASTER than it could drive

So with these facts in mind, a crazy guy straps some explosives to a tractor which should be obvious even if they were covered, because ANOTHER attempted tractor bombing occured last week. He does this and proceeds to pilot this thing slower than he can run into a cluster of Iraqi troops and detonate it. As I said, I don't want to be mean, but how do you not notice something like that? :confused:on the plus side, it's because it's stupid that it worked. the person could have the explosives on boxes strapped to the tractor... Fuel canisters would also work. then by driving it slowly, he appears to be a farmer or construction worker depending on the type of tractor.

who would be stupid to use a tractor as a car bomb... that is what the guards probably thought. just like pre 9/11, any hijacking usually meant hours at some airport while the authorities and Hijackers negotiate... who would think of crashing a plane full of people into a building?

Perhaps it was a Tractor-"Beam" bomb? :D

Bombers often hide bombs under the chasis or in the gas tanks of the vehicles to prevent random checks from turning them up.

In a place like Iraq where they are doing tons of reconstruction its not suprising a tractor would not be looked at twice.

Also the fact another tractor bombing occured is not a mitigating circumstance. There was a car crash on a highway yesterday night yet I still drive my car. In a place where IEDs are going off on a fairly regular basis its easy to pass one off as a random event.

This of coruse also ignores the fact they may not have known about the tractor bombing either.

If somebody would be interested enough, he/she might find out that average tractors can easily reach speeds up to 20 mph - and I think that's either direction. :) The newer ones can do over 30 mph easily.