It took a giant-ass bomb for it to happen — the Mother of All Bombs, actually, or the MOAB.

Its technical name is the GBU-42/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, a large-yield bomb that weighs in at a healthy 21,600 pounds, and at the time of its conception and development was the largest non-nuke in the American arsenal. Military folks have known about it for over a decade now, and a small percentage of servicemembers have even seen it tested. But it took the first use of the MOAB in combat for it to enter the national consciousness. In the process, it returned our nation’s longest-ever (and still ongoing) war to the forefront, too.

It did so with style. There was much, much handwringing about using the MOAB to target mountain tunnels being used by ISIS’s affiliate in Afghanistan. There were creepy... Read More