These roadside bombs weren’t much of a surprise.

A convoy of three Strykers from 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division rolled down the muddy roads of a Fort Lewis range Wednesday afternoon. Each time, the mock bomb exploded near the second vehicle. Soldiers discovered a copper command wire leading toward a house at the base of a hill. Gunners in the vehicles fired at the house with Squad Automatic Weapons while a dismounted patrol closed in on the building and eventually stormed inside.

Then they’d regroup, reload their ammunition and repeat the scenario. It doesn’t quite mimic the exact situation on the ground in Iraq, where the brigade will deploy this fall, but Wednesday’s live-fire training was as realistic as some of the unit’s newest members have seen since joining 4th Brigade.

"We tell the guys, ‘Look, it’s not always going to be like this in Iraq,’" said Lt. Grant Carriker. "Things are going to be faster, more hectic. You’ll have to think on the fly. But we’re laying the groundwork now."

But Carriker, a platoon leader with Alpha Battery of 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, and others in the brigade have less time than other units to prepare. The Defense Department announced in March that 4th Brigade will deploy to Iraq this fall, about nine months ahead of schedule.

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The New York Times reports on the American military's strategy of cutting off the main source of the Taliban's money by deploying troops to the three southern provinces where the group harvests opium. And guess what unit appears to be scheduled to spearhead the effort?

Many of the new American soldiers will fan out along southern Afghanistan’s largely unguarded 550-mile-long border with Pakistan. Among them will be soldiers deployed in the Stryker, a relatively quick, nimble armored vehicle that can roam across the vast areas that span the frontier.

All of the new troops are supposed to be in place by Aug. 20, in order to provide security for Afghanistan’s presidential election.

(Yes, I know the Strykers in the photos are from 3/2. But it's just a really cool photo.)

One of the Internet’s greatest achievements (and curses) is that it allows people to debate just about any topic and propose any solution, no matter how outta-left-field it might seem.

A Facebook group seems to exemplify this: More than 90 members have joined a group advocating sending a Stryker brigade to the Darfur region of western Sudan.

(If you need a crash course on Darfur, Wikipedia provides a comprehensive crash course on a topic.)

The group's three administrators all are soldiers (according to their profiles) and say they live in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Here’s what they advocate:

Did you ever occur to activists that throwing aid money and food will not make a problem go away? Well here is a solution. Send a Stryker Brigade Combat Team in and make zone of separation between the janjaweed militia and people of the Darfur region of the Sudan. Once this is established. Anyone entering the zone of seperation without authorization will be terminated. This will allow the activists to then come in and help rebuild Darfur in addition to helping them eventually provide for their own defense.

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