MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS. Sexist? Too big?
The United States dropped the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb for the first time in combat recently. The bomb, also known as the “Mother of all Bombs” was dropped in Afghanistan to eliminate ISIS fighters in an infested area of caves and tunnels. The latest battle damage report estimates 94 fighters killed by this bomb.
Some have said that using the word “mother” in the nickname is sexist. But humans have been naming ships and weapons after their mothers and goddesses (sometimes one in the same) for much of our history. Even a ship like the one that fired 59 tomahawk missiles into Syria recently was named after a woman. Was it a problem then? Maybe it is just a southern saying, but I can’t tell you how many times I have heard, “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out,” by an angry mother. The bomb’s nickname gives respect to those who bring life into the world, and how fitting that a “mother” takes them out.
But I digress. When we tangle with large groups of foreign fighters, we pay a high price like we did in 2011 with 31 US troops lost after a Chinook helicopter was shot down, and in 2005 during Operation Redwing when SEALs came under attack and another Chinook was shot down. Launching an attack is a difficult, risky decision. When General John Nicholson ordered the MOAB be dropped on ISIS — a sworn enemy of the United States — I doubt he was worried about what the bomb was nicknamed or what might have been written on it. He was focused on doing the most damage he could to an enemy and reducing collateral damage. I’m sure some English majors would be upset about soldiers writing their favorite poetry on missiles that are launched against our enemies, and perhaps Bible verses’s sometimes adorn missiles as well. Is this really the only negative that could be said about the use of the MOAB?
No, wait, there is more, because in the haste to find negatives about anything Trump may or may not have approved, the media and others framed the MOAB as “the largest non-nuclear bomb in the arsenal” and compared the MOAB to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. One little itty, bitty problem, they missed the “kilo” in the comparison. The atomic bomb used at Hiroshima was the equivalent of 15 kilotons of TNT. The MOAB is the equivalent of 11 tons of TNT, which is .011 of a kiloton — orders of magnitude smaller than an atomic bomb. But decimal, schmecimal —who cares about math when the headline is good!
The following is a comprehensive list of those that SHOULD be upset about the MOAB being used:
- ISIS
Not only are there Zombies in Homeland Security, but there are some in the media as well. Don’t be a Zombie, fact check the stories that are hitting the headlines as “breaking news.”
