U.S. Seeks More Supply Routes for Afghanistan

American Forces Press Service ^ | Gerry J. Gilmore

[SandRat]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31, 2008 – As Pakistani troops apply renewed pressure on militants who have threatened a major supply line, military transportation officials are seeking alternate routes for supplying U.S. and NATO troops deployed in Afghanistan.

Pakistani forces yesterday renewed offensive operations targeting militants who, in recent weeks, have attacked some supply convoys that transit the Khyber Pass.

That supply route runs hundreds of miles from the Pakistani port city of Karachi to Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan and then through the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. The Khyber Pass route provides about 75 percent of the U.S. supplies to troops in Afghanistan.

The Pakistanis’ action, which caused a temporary closure of the Khyber Pass supply route, was hailed in a joint statement issued by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan.

“We are pleased with the operation to clear out the insurgents in the areas adjacent to the pass, so that our supplies can get through unhindered,” the statement said. “This temporary delay will result in long-term gains for all that use that passage route.

“There is no immediate impact on our ability to provide supplies to the troops,” the statement concluded.

Still, military officials have been looking for other options. U.S. Transportation Command’s top officer, Air Force Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, traveled to several Central Asian countries in November to explore options for establishing added supply routes for Afghanistan operations, Transcom spokeswoman Cynthia Bauer said today during a telephone interview with American Forces Press Service. Transcom is based at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

Bauer declined to mention specific countries, but Central Asian nations north of Afghanistan include Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan allows U.S. military cargo flights to use its airfields.

“We’ve been looking at alternate distribution routes for a while,” “[It’s] just good business practice and U.S. Transcom’s responsibility,” Bauer said, especially given the unpredictability of war.

“This is a comprehensive enterprise to bring supplies to the troops in Afghanistan, accomplished through teamwork with commercial partners and working relationships with other governments,” Bauer said.

Transcom would use private contractors for supply distribution, Bauer said, noting this process would provide potential economic benefits for Central Asian countries and Eurasia’s Caucasus region. Local purchase of supplies needed in Afghanistan is another possibility, she added.

Contractors crossing the Khyber Pass from Pakistan are trucking mostly nonmilitary items such as food and other basic needs to troops in Afghanistan, Bauer said.

“You’re not seeing MRAPs” going through the Khyber Pass, she said, referring to the acronym for the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles used in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

U.S. forces in Afghanistan also have stockpiled supplies, Bauer pointed out, noting there’s no danger they’ll run out.

Related Sites:
U.S. Transportation Command
U.S. Forces Afghanistan
NATO International Security Assistance Force

Related Articles:
Chairman Cites Importance of U.S.-Pakistan Relationship
Pakistan’s Anti-Terror Offensive Assists Afghan War Aims, Gates Says
Afghan Supply Line Still Viable, Despite Breaches, Pentagon Official Says

[SandRat]

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[screaminsunshine]

Prepare the Neutron bombs. We can open supply routes if we wish to.

[Joe Boucher]

I don’t understand why we haven’t done just that many times here and there in just the right spots and all this nonsense would end.

[edcoil]

We need to get out of Afghanistan. It destroyed everyone ever there - all we are really doing is subsidizing the poppy business.

[Wuli]

see my post #7 on this semi-duplicate thread

[justa-hairyape]

We need to get out of Afghanistan. It destroyed everyone ever there - all we are really doing is subsidizing the poppy business.

While our troops currently sit without a major supply route in Afghanistan, (estimated 600 trucks per day through the pass), the Russians are regrouping their previous effort to take the major energy pipelines through Georgia and are currently threatening the major energy pipeline going through the Ukraine. Afghanistan has no energy. Only poppies and goats. One has to wonder why we are increasing our military presence into Afghanistan and the only logical explanation is that these force will eventually be used to prevent Islamic extremists from acquiring Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

[Wuli]

We need to challenge the Afghan’s in their political process, to ask if they are OUR partners (freedom & liberty, not simply “democracy”) as much as we are THEIR partners (helping to preserve their nominal political freedom).

The place to start, and a crucial question that we should require of ourselves to ask, would be: Will they repeal the law that requires capital punishment for any Muslim who converts from Islam to another religion? [Still held as the law by the current government.]

If they are not willing to repeal that law, they stand no chance of being our true partners in the long run and we are doing nothing more than playing geopolitical games between Iranian theocrats and various Sunni theocrats in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is a contest in which we do not have any candidate and neither winner, in any Middle East country, will be our true partner once one side or the other has superiority. Unless that kind of law is repealed, we are not “saving” Afghanistan, we are protecting Sunni theocrats from Shia theocrats; nothing more.

If that is the choice (NOT repealing that law) of the Afghan people, then they need to defend themselves and succumb to their preferred choice of theocrats.

[Tommyjo]

Don’t forget the linking up with Iran via Georgia. Roll eyes! You’ve been reading far too many Tom Clancy novels!

[kinghorse]

The strategy is a loss leader. What you get along with the rough go of it in Afghanistan is priceless. You can’t leave it to it’s own devices. Unopposed, the poppy business would keep the bad guys flush with cash. Bad stuff will happen to us. There’s nothing to punish post attack when it comes to that forsaken place, so the best strategy is keep them too busy running from us to be able to do really bad stuff like execute attacks in the US. As unwinnable as it has always been there, in the modern world where they can reach us, we can’t ignore them.

[edcoil]

You are forgetting the massive irrigation system we built for them

[justa-hairyape]

You’ve been reading far too many Tom Clancy novels!

Its the all knowing Tommyjo. Happy New Year ! Are you at Putins New Years party ? Did you hear what he likes to do to Nations Presidents ? He likes to hang em by their balls Tommy. I suppose that is what you ex intel people call teaching someone a lesson.

[Joe Boucher]

Folks there have fought anyone who has ever gone there whether to kill them or help them.
I believe it will always be such.
I fail to understand why we are in the Mid-East to begin with?
It is Europe that gets the vast majority of its oil from there not us.

[Tommyjo]

Happy New Year to yourself! Keep up that vivid imagination!

[justa-hairyape]

Keep up that vivid imagination!

We have too. We are now doing it for all the Russians that no longer can.

New law in Russia ends jury trials for 'crimes against state'

[Tommyjo]

Currently the Russian aircraft carrier and its battle group are on exercise in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. What scenario is your vivid imagination conjuring up?

[justa-hairyape]

And apparently Israel launched a ground invasion into Gaza today. I suppose you see no reason why the Russians should be concerned with any of their Med partners in crime that are under attack ? Many people said that Hamas provoked this Israeli response. Many recognize that Hamas is an Iranian puppet. And you know Russia has lots of spies within Israel and probably saw this coming. We call those types of spies, useful idiots over here in the states. Still see no connection between Persia and Moskova ?

[Tommyjo]

Still letting that imagination run wild, I see?! What next with your vivid and active imagination? Do you see the Russian carrier battle group providing combat air patrols over Gaza in support to Iranian backed Hamas? No doubt you will now expect, with everything in place, a Russian invasion of Georgia. The naval exercise was all a bluff simply to get the carrier in position to close off the Black Sea to U.S. and NATO forces. Now the Russians and Iranians can link up via a land route and the flow of weapons will begin. — Roll eyes!

[justa-hairyape]

Russia tells Israel it is Concerned over Gaza Dead
Excerpt from article thread.
According to the Arab daily, A-sharq Al-awsat, Assad called upon Medvedev to implement steps on the international arena to pressure Israel to stop “the murderous actions,” to remove the blockade on the Gaza coast and to open the border crossings.

Getting old just relaying the news to you Tommy.

[justa-hairyape]

And just to show you how your favorite buddies are involved.

Iran Threatens To Break Israel's Gaza Blockade
Excerpt from article.
It is hard to imagine how much worse the situation could get, but the confrontation in Gaza could see a dangerous escalation in the coming days as Iran threatens to break the Israeli blockade and deliver urgently needed medical supplies and other aid to the coastal strip.

For the life of me I cannot comprehend why you would get so excited about just plain old news.