This is stated as fact, without a source. Fact is that we moved a mountain of materiel and I never heard one peep about us not having enough lift capacity. Any takers?
Michael
Remember Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan? The Army had no artillery in country and only limited attack helicopters--I think it was 8(?). As a result, we were unable to successfully suppress enemy fire upon the initial insertion and we lost helicopters and American lives. Further, fixed wing air by nature of its short loiter time, limited flexibility, and inability to work in bad weather was not able to provide the promised support to the ground troops, so when Taliban or Al Qaeda were spotted outside the range of infantry weapons, they often could not be engaged and most eventually got away. The reason for not having the heavy stuff was insufficient airlift.
Why do you think we did that kabooki dance with the turks over the 4th ID? If we could have flown them in, we would have, but instead we had to land them in Turkey and let them drive to Iraq. Then we had to move them, or more properly their equipemnt, from the Med to the Indian Ocean/Arabian Sea, after the Turks said no dice. If we could have flown them around, into Kuwait, there'd have been way more boots, wheels and treads on the ground during the earliest weeks of the fighting.