You Shoot Like A Goat Herder

In Fallujah’s darkened, empty streets, U.S. troops blast AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells” and other rock music full volume from a huge speaker, hoping to grate on the nerves of this Sunni Muslim city’s gunmen and give a laugh to Marines along the front line. Unable to advance farther into the city, an Army psychological operations team hopes a mix of heavy metal and insults shouted in Arabic – including, “You shoot like a goat herder” – will draw gunmen to step forward and attack … Later, the team blasted Jimi Hendrix and other rock music, and afterward some sound effects like babies crying, men screaming, a symphony of cats and barking dogs and piercing screeches.

And if the noise pollution doesn’t work?

A short time later, an F-16 jet dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on the city, sending up a massive spray of dirt and smoke and destroying a building where Marines had spotted gunmen.

What is the effect of using a 2,000-pound (900 Kg) bomb in a crowded urban setting? It destroys an entire block with a blast radius of about 4,000 feet (1,200 metres).

For a 2,000-pound bomb, for example, controllers know that friendly forces must be 500 meters [1,650 feet] away to ensure their safety. A 2,000-pound bomb is so powerful that, even at 225 meters [740 feet] — a distance greater than two football fields — the PI factor would be 10 percent, meaning that 10 percent of friendly forces would be incapacitated for at least five minutes.