That's a saying I learned many years ago. And you brave folks who've fought the Taliban and AQ and the Fedayeen and the myriad other groups of Islamic rootweevils out there, know this very well.
By and large, for the last half century, we've been fighting people who are dirt poor, people who out of necessity are incredibly practical, resourceful and inventive. And they will use anything we discard. I'm not just talking about sensitive items, like weapons and comm; I mean anything from truck tires to cardboard boxes to spent artillery shells.
The Viet Cong made sandals out of truck tires. Shorts and sandals were the BDUs of the VC for much of the year. Half the houses outside the Danang airbase were made out of discarded C-ration boxes. With TV antennas sticking out of them.
I firmly believe that an insurgent operation could equip and maintain itself fairly successfully by just the enormous amount of crap they could get out of our refuse piles.
Have any of you seen recycled American gear configured into weapons by our enemies? I've seen spent LAAWs tubes, dud mortar rounds, US-issue frags tripwired across trails. It makes you want to find and kill the idiot who left this shit behind.
By and large, for the last half century, we've been fighting people who are dirt poor, people who out of necessity are incredibly practical, resourceful and inventive. And they will use anything we discard. I'm not just talking about sensitive items, like weapons and comm; I mean anything from truck tires to cardboard boxes to spent artillery shells.
The Viet Cong made sandals out of truck tires. Shorts and sandals were the BDUs of the VC for much of the year. Half the houses outside the Danang airbase were made out of discarded C-ration boxes. With TV antennas sticking out of them.
I firmly believe that an insurgent operation could equip and maintain itself fairly successfully by just the enormous amount of crap they could get out of our refuse piles.
Have any of you seen recycled American gear configured into weapons by our enemies? I've seen spent LAAWs tubes, dud mortar rounds, US-issue frags tripwired across trails. It makes you want to find and kill the idiot who left this shit behind.
