Afghanistan's Logistics War
Greetings from Afghanistan, where I will be spending the next few weeks studying the air war and the run up to the troop surge. So far, I spent time on the two largest installations, Kandahar and Bagram, and at both places, officials are scurrying to prepare for additional 30,000-35,000 surge forces. Just before I left, I wrote about the logistical challenge of getting those troops in remote parts of Afghanistan in just six months as the president’s surge here calls for. But to see it on the ground is something else. I am seeing firsthand the additional complexities that I couldn’t properly understand in Washington.
The facilities here are already maxed out. Afghanistan has always been treated as the ugly stepsister to Iraq in terms of support, facilities and equipment. And as such, both installations have always adjusted to making the most with the little they have. Bagram, where I am writing this, already has the busiest airport within the DoD, in terms of cargo and passengers. It was designed to handle 250 passengers a day; it now takes in as many as 1,300. In November, airport workers handled nearly 20,000 tons of cargo, a record and far more than this airport was designed to handle. And with both the Christmas and surge rush of cargo, those numbers are only growing. As Lt. Col. Dan Krall, of the 455th Expeditionary Aerial Port Squadron, explained to me, it is a war of its own: “It’s constant battle to keep stuff moving.” Now, officials here are quickly trying to expand the airport and base to serve far more than Bagram was ever designed for. Even basic logistics need to be updated; Bagram is getting its first sewage system, for example. And both bases are constant construction projects. Simply put, Bagram and Kandahar, which will be needed to get the surge troops to their outposts, are already overcrowded, and the surge troops are not even here yet.
There is also the lingering July 2011 deadline. Where Iraq’s bases were expanded with no one knowing how long troops would stay, here everyone is building for facilities that will become too big by the deadline, when the president said the troops will start to withdraw. So all the construction around here is with that date in mind. How much do you then construct?
So often, we talk about the war out on the battlefield. But in Afghanistan, just as important is the logistics war. If it fails, the troops won’t get there, eat, and live securely to execute the new strategy. On the ground, it is an undeniably daunting task.
Good Luck Stay Safe.
do you feel like you are on the back / dark side of the moon ???
Posted by: just a reader | December 21, 2009 at 11:58 AM
After two terms of “dead or alive” Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Gonzales/Addington/Yoo misadministration, it is baffling that many Americans remain convinced by the Rovian marketing of their version of reality. How utterly afraid GW and the Big Dick must be that we will someday wake up to the Truth: the Bush League, consistent with Reagan’s castration of Government responsibility to the American people (including Tea Baggers), chose to respond to the murders on 9/11, not by pursuing those in Afghanistan who were responsible, but rather by using young American men and women as pawns in a wholly unjustifiable war for short term oil riches and long term financial draining of a potential middle eastern empire.
The TRUTH: every life sacrificed in and for the IRAQ war is a life used and destroyed by its own government; Our first 21st Century administration lacked any sense of humanity, lost in its own clichés, sound bites, secrets, lies and smirking rhetoric, it redirected “We the People” into We the Duped, as we sat watching the double talk of Corporate owned "talking heads."
Wouldn't this season of snowy Holidays be a good time to take off our “Love It or Leave It” blinders, put on our thinking caps and get actively involved with the only Truth that will set us free from the low road lesser men & women would have us continue to trod, against all that we claim to stand for. If indicting traitors from a former administration is too awkward for National consumption, then can we at least stop listening to and being fooled by those “Left Behind” as proof of a most shameful period in our Nation’s history: The "Dark Ages of Bush & Cheney.
True, we were never as perfect as our movies & history books portrayed, but at least we were honest enough to admit we were a work in progress attempting to live up to the Ideal that was the Idea of America. However, that was before our religious beliefs became a weapon the GOP used to insight our mob mentality. If we continue to follow their fearful lead, we will be forced to profess the belief that in just one single year, one good man elected to the highest office of the Land should have eliminated all the challenges that face us. This is indeed group self-denial. Although, perhaps if we had elected someone like Barrack Obama before, and indeed waged the correct war where Al Qaeda was instead of where the oil is, we just might have found and defeated those who invaded America and murdered us on September 11, 2001 -- eight long years ago.
However, we didn’t do that. No we, in a state of righteous indignation over oral sex denials, elected an unprincipled regime who wiped their oily boots on the Constitution of the United States of America while the blood of our youth dripped from their hands. Wrapped in the American flag, they marketed themselves as standard bearers of family values. We were duped by fairy tales of spin. So will we continue to allow Congressional Republicans to blame and criticize those who are trying to clean up the mess dumped on our Nation by these stampeding elephants in search of shadowy hiding places, OR shall we stand tall, accept, if not admit the unfortunate effect of the Bush League on our personal economy and International reputation, and join our new President in a period of repair and healing: "United We Stand?"
The choice is ours, but I hope the next time you feel yelling “Kill the Bill,” or screaming out impatient talking points over the Health Care Reform compromises of Senator Harry Reid or the length of war or surge of troops, or the loss of jobs, the foreclosures and devalued stocks, might I suggest you insist that the Bush/Cheney Administration be brought to Justice for High Crimes and Misdemeanors, so you can address those truly responsible, as well as their accomplices before & after the fact: The C Street House Family & their “Family Values” friends, including but not limited to: John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, Jim DeMint, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, the John Birch Society and the how low can you go Joe Liebermann. The Choice is clear and it's Yours to make.
Giving HOPE a Helping Hand,
Posted by: Marcello Rollando | December 20, 2009 at 01:34 PM