The Gods of War smile upon a convoy of troops travelling through Iraq and insurgent prematurely detonates his improvised explosive device, making a very expensive pothole.

You would think being an IED trigger-man is a pretty easy job. In reality, it's actually kind of hard. This video comes from the early days in IED warfare, before the Insurgents figured out to use aiming stakes and points of reference to detonate their IEDs. The funny thing is, this is literally footage from the beginning of that style of warfare. From here on out during the GWoT, it was a race to see who could develop their technology the fastest.

On the insurgent side of the coin, that looked like pressure plates, homemade explosives, electronic detonation devices, and improvise EFPs. On our side, that looked like sickle-sticks, electronic counter-measures, and widespread training in the use of combat mine detectors.