Posted on 10/04/2017 10:35:37 AM PDT by Sean_Anthony
Michael Fumento image By Michael Fumento —— Bio and Archives October 4, 2017
0 Comments | Print Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
In June 1948, Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin. Within two days the US and UK air forces had begun a supply chain from bases in in western Germany, maintaining it until May the following year. In all, the Berlin Airlift delivered 2.4 million tons of food and supplies under hostile conditions to about 2.5 million people, including all their food, gasoline, and coal for heating and electricity generating.
Yet Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory with 3.4 million souls, two weeks after being body-slammed by the fiercest hurricane to hit the island in 90 years, is receiving little aid. This is apparently primarily because of a bottleneck at the island’s sole container port, San Juan. There is disagreement over the causes of that bottleneck, but fact is it can be bypassed.
Did they ask the Puerto Rican Teamsters about this yet?
Well, if they had not demanded that the Navy leave 20 years or so ago, they might have had at least one more avenue of delivery.
More cost effective using ships no doubt.
Probably all in U.S. prisons.
What the..? I think I need a drool cup.
Because Berlin was an isolated city. A city.
Puerto Rico is an island ‘nation’ the size of Delaware.
This, the foundational assertion of the article, is false. The article is junk.
Next!
There was a report last week on one of the alphabet networks that PR has become an island full of old people, because most of the young ones have left for the mainland to find jobs and a better life, so the shortage of drivers is logical.......................
In Berlin there was a government that was not corrupt that could organize things.
In Berlin people and their leaders were grateful as opposed to the Mayor of San Juan.
They are in the U.S. taking trucking jobs away from Americans.
I’m in Florida.
My street still has massive piles of plant debris from Irma.
WM emptied my available trash cans on Saturday.
Hopefully, they’ll empty them again on Thursday.
You don’t need the drool cup. The writer of this farce of an article, however...
CC
If Berlin was not landlocked and had a coast, there would never have been a Berlin Airlift because we would have sent ships instead of planes - which is a much more efficient way of shipping in bulk. Almost all our materials for D-Day were sent to England by ship!
The regular commercial distribution system outmatches anything the federal government could ever do.
Puerto Rican construction workers will clean up in more ways than one.
There is going to be a building permit bottleneck.
Here in Florida before Irma the wait was often about a month.
And there’s another big difference between Puerto Rico and Berlin. To maximize efficiency, Lt Gen William Tunner, who assumed operational control of the airlift, hired thousand of German civilians to unload the aircraft and distribute the cargo. Not surprisingly, the workforce included a lot of former German soldiers who knew something about logistics and getting supplies from an arrival point to places where they were needed.
Additionally, the Germans knew that if the airlift failed, the Allies would be forced to fight a war over the city, or cede control to the Russians. Making the airlift work was very much in their interest, and German citizens put for a maximum effort. In fact, they built a new airfield in the French sector in barely six months, to increase capacity in the city. Compare that to Puerto Rico, where corrupt politicians and union thugs are deliberately delaying the delivery of supplies to achieve their own agenda.
In the Berliners of 1948 were on Puerto Rico right now, there wouldn’t be a distribution crisis. And likewise, if the Puerto Rican union bosses and pols were running Berlin 69 years ago, they would be speaking Russian in very short order.
The premise is false. There is a massive airlift effort underway. Charleston AFB SC alone has sent over 40 C-17’s to P.R.
“3.4 million souls...little aid”
~$100 million a week for food if no island resident had money
probably only $50 million in weekly food money need
probably only about $10 million/week in non-SNAP food fund need
Money probably can be sent Western Union and American Express from Metro New York by relatives.
Where is the nearest airport to load the planes. Carriers can not launch cargo plane well can they?
They are using helicopters to move materials in but they need ground coordination to put the stuff in the right place.
there must be dozens of other reasons that they have a good plan which is more than the writer.
BEcause there is no wall.
Pickup trucks are common here in Florida.
I assume people like them in Puerto Rico too.
Sell the stuff on the docks to people with pickup trucks.
Let them resell it.
Let the market system work.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.