The U.S. military is rapidly expanding its aerial and Central Asian* supply routes to the war in Afghanistan, fearing that Pakistan could cut off the main means of providing American and NATO forces with fuel, food and equipment.
Although Pakistan has not explicitly threatened to sever the supply lines, Pentagon officials said they are concerned the routes could be endangered by the deterioration of U.S.-Pakistan relations, partly fed by ill will from the cross-border raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
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How long we been saying this around here? It don't matter how many "boots on the ground" you have, if you can't resupply 'em you might as well let 'em fight with slingshots. The best strategy and tactics are useless without fuel, food, and bullets. If the Pak Taliban don't attack the convoys (which seems to be a monthly occurrence), the convoys have to bribe their way across the border to their destination. It was one of the major reasons the Soviets (and many others before them) threw up their hands and left.
4 comments:
Yeppers, the last successful conqueror of Afghanistan was Tamerlane, who had no logistical supply train at all -- he fed his troops by marching them around and seizing food from the folks who happened to live wherever his army ended up (folks who tended to end up *not* living, he simply depopulated any area he felt was too rebellious to conquer), and seized any iron they had for making into arrowheads and swords (via his own blacksmiths who marched with him) too.
But the U.S. Army isn't Tamerlane's army. It runs on diesel fuel, not grass and oats, and expends tons of ordinance, not ounces of it. We just need to get out of Afghanistan, because the logistics there for a modern army are murder -- almost literally.
- Badtux the History Penguin
They're gonna run the bullets 'n beans in through the 'Stans. I hope they tell Pakistan to fuck off.
Yeah, well, the Trashcanistans are connected to the rest of the world by a) a rickety rail connection to Europe, and b) by air. Whereas Pakistan is connected to the rest of the world by a major port that ships can unload massive amounts of goods into. Shipping everything through the Trashcanistans is gonna be a logistical nightmare -- all that crap that the U.S. Army goes thru like a hot knife thru butter, all having to take that loooong trip over rickety train rails from Europe? Yeah, that's gonna work out well...
- Badtux the Logistical Penguin
Shipping everything through the Trashcanistans is gonna be a logistical nightmare ...
Exactly.
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