| > Does anyone have any insight as to why resistance forces are seemingly so much more effective today compared to the past? Rebels were able to bleed the US of billions with the threat of a cheap car bomb Many reasons, but certainly one of them is the asymetry in the cost of materiel. For the $30 it costs[0] to make an IED, you can put at risk anything from an APC costing $300,000 [1], to a tank costing over $6,000,000 [2] i.e. a difference of 10,000 to 200,000 times. Further to this, one can factor in the cost to the US of maintaining security with "boots on the ground", where those soldiers can cost anywhere from $400,000/year to over $2,000,000/year [3] (depending on who you ask). Finally, the insurgents have a very different aim to the US troops. An analogy might be useful here. Consider the result to an elephant of stirring up an ants' nest [4] (no spoilers - go read it). (EDITED to fix formatting) [0] https://www.npr.org/2011/12/18/143902421/in-iraq-fighting-an... [1] http://www.military-today.com/apc/m113a3.htm [2] https://www.therichest.com/rich-list/the-biggest/top-10-most... [3] https://www.yahoo.com/news/it-costs--2-1-million-per-year-fo... [4] https://www.voanews.com/a/ants-take-on-elephants-in-african-... |