The situation in Iraq

[nadinbrzezinski]

There are times that political parties make strategic mistakes with the best of intentions. That happened this week. As they say, the way to hell is paved with the best of intentions

Now the only thing take heart in is that it took three years to get out of Vietnam. Any who lived through the period or studies history, will realize that many of the current excuses were used back then. Indeed, we may see genocide when we pull out, but that is inevitable. Why am I saying this? Again,. anybody who studies history will realize this when readying this:

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/files/iraq_food_deliveries.pdf

Oh and here is what the brief said

Due to a theater-wide delay in food delivery, menu selections will be limited for the near future. While every effort will be made to provide balanced meals, it may not be possible to offer the dishes you are used to seeing at each meal. Fresh fruits and salad bar items will also be severely limited or unavailable.


Now any student of logistics knows that when any army faces this kind of a crisis... it is trouble

Larry Johnson has blogged extensively on this as well

You can find him here

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/the_surge_is_fa.html

And you can find more here, at the Washington Post

Taste of Home Runs Low in Iraq
Complications Hold Up Embassy Food Convoys
By Karen DeYoungWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 24, 2007; Page A26
Congress and the White House may be sparring over funds for the U.S. effort in Iraq, but the mint chocolate chip is still flowing at the embassy in Baghdad. At least for now.
Life in the Green Zone -- a Foreign Service hardship post -- has long been mitigated by the culinary comforts of home. Virtually every bite and sip consumed there is imported from the United States, entering Iraq via Kuwait in huge truck convoys that bring fresh and processed food, including a full range of Baskin-Robbins ice cream flavors, every seven to 10 days.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/23/AR2007052301344.html


This is very serious, and unfortunately some people will still scream support the troops.. yet those same people do not, nor do they care to learn, just how precarious the situation on the ground truly is.

[kineneb]

1. Professionals study logistics,

amateurs study strategy and tactics. An army travels on its stomach. When it over-reaches its supply lines, then it is on the verge of collapse. This is what happened with Rome and Napoleon (thinking here of N's retreat from Russia).

The PNAC boys only think they can make up their own "reality." They make up their own strategies based on ideology rather than true reality. Our military, on the other hand, can't eat ideology.

Karma can be nasty.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Well I used to do some of this logistics thingy as a disaster

specialist, and when the shit hits the fan... you'd better have your supplies in place and a supply line ready

Trust me I know just how much trouble this is

I will add two or three more examples to the armies are in trouble when the supply chain goes the way of the hand basket

1.- The Civil war. The north won the logistics war and when Lee surrendered, his army was a rag tag collection of starving soldiers... you could say he had little choice.

2.- Algeria, the rebels first broke the back of the French Supply system before they broke the army

3.- Dien Bien Phu... it took the North Vietnamese a while, but once they had the foreign legion surrounded and cut from supply it was a matter of time. The legion fought heroically, but the end was a given

4.- The Russians won the supply war at Stalingrad...

And I could go on

What is in store for the military makes me sick, since these boys at PNAC will NOT pay the cost for this foolishness.