Taliban Farming: Suicide Tractors

I stumbled to catch myself as the metal trailer I was in jumped off its supports and then crashed back down with a thunderous rattle which itself was eclipsed by another boom of much more power. It clearly wasn't thunder, but my civilized brain couldn't find any other classification for what that noise could have just been. But as the cold metal of my 9mm pistol touched my elbow I was instantly brought back to the war zone I was in and the one thing that noise could have been.
"To the bunker, everybody, now!" I yelled to the equally confused airmen in the security trailer.
Ironically, we had just finished listening to an intelligence brief warning us to be wary of a potential Taliban attack on our base. Literally, two minutes ago! It had been summed up with, "We expect an attack any day now."
It had happened. As I ran outside, about 400 meters away I could a cloud of dust rising a couple hundred feet in the air. With the curiosity of a newbie, I paused for a second until the rattle of machine gun fire spurred me on toward the concrete slabs constructing our bunker. On the way I heard three, maybe six, explosions and the stacatto sounds of AK-47's and M16's competing in my eardrums. I kneeled down and loaded my pistol if not quite with practiced skill then at least efficently, and waited to see what else would happen.
I found out later that an insurgent had managed to drive a tractor full of explosives near to the fence and then blow it and himself up. Right behind him another jihadist ran to the fence and blew himself up with a suicide vest causing a small hole in the fence. However, his fellow soon-to-be so-called matryrs didn't get a chance to run through it as they were shortly cut down by Coalition fire. They did manage to shoot off a few RPGs, but the gunbattle was over shortly and they began detonating themselves as they were wounded.
All of this mayhem was uncorrelated noise to me as I stood under concrete with other members of my squadron. After the initial craziness, the curiosity of some overtook their caution and they climbed on top to get a better view (not me, I promised my wife I would be very careful). Indeed there was much to see. Helicopters were instantly swooping down on the area ready to go to work. I even saw an unmanned MQ-9 Reaper flown overhead by some pilot in Nevada that wanted to help. High above everything else was my adopted aircraft the MC-12 taking video and helping to coordinate. Everybody on the base wanted to do their jobs, and they were all trying. I could even imagine 5,000 marines sprinting from 4 miles away on the other side of base just hoping for a chance to "get some action."
If nothing else, this attack actually made me feel more safe. There is no way that 10 or even 100 poorly trained men could do much damage to this place. Even if they were to get inside the wire they would be facing 30,000 people armed at all times with well-prepared defensive positions everywhere. This place was designed to withstand full infantry attacks against 1,000's of troops. All in all, the damage they cause was 3 slightly wounded soldiers and $70 of chainlink fence repair. $70. I can't help but wonder what these people are thinking. It's not even like Clearly we can't hold them to rational standards though. They willing choose to blow themselves up.