Interdiction Campaign

When at war, the actual battlefield is only part of the war effort. Behind the battlefield you have support forces that directly and indirectly aid the combat units. Behind them you have the home nation that generates new forces and replacements and supplies. Getting these forces and supplies to the combat and support forces is vitally important.

Trying to stop the enemy from moving forward men and material is of course important. This is an interdiction campaign. During the Cold War, we planned an air and missile campaign directed at the lines of communication for the Soviet second echelon of divisions. If we could disrupt this force, by destroying units on the move or slowing them down by hitting roads and bridges and tunnels, we'd keep the enemy from deploying long enough for us to win. At the very least, the enemy would have to expend forces protecting these lines of communication that would otherwise be available to use directly against us.

In Iraq, this all applies too. We are trying to halt Iranian and Syrian supplies for the terrorists inside Iraq. We are not yet using military force.

And the enemy tries to slow our forces heading to the battlefield, too. This week they were at it in Washington state where a Stryker Brigade is shipping equipment to Iraq. And they've done this before:

These same bullies staged obstructionist protests at the Port of Olympia in Washington last year — blocking gates to prevent convoys from passing and attempting to tear down fencing following the arrival of a large military ship bound for Iraq. In April 2003, "peace" protesters waged similar attacks in Oakland, Calif., where they attempted to shut down a port involved in shipping military supplies to soldiers. The Bay Area anti-war brigade set out deliberately and specifically to prevent private businesses from fulfilling their federal contracts with the Department of Defense and U.S. Agency for International Development related to the war and postwar reconstruction in Iraq.

Thus far, efforts to interdict our supply lines are more energetic than our efforts to interdict the enemy's supplies. This is what these "peace" protesters are trying to do. But dear God, don't you dare question their patriotism! Oh, no, that would be wrong.

Glenn Reynolds has let a saying of his atrophy lately. It's time to restore it.

Some people aren't "anti-war." They're just on the other side.