Thanks to billions of dollars spent in road and air base construction, troops in landlocked Afghanistan will never have to worry about getting enough supplies, the Pentagon's chief of military transportation told senators last week.
Insurgent attacks on major supply roads into Afghanistan have disrupted U.S. delivery schedules, said Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, who directs the U.S. Transport Command. But he told lawmakers that he has personally assured the head of Central Command, Gen. David H. Petraeus, "We will be there. We'll figure out and make sure you never have to worry about this."
Petraeus is overseeing the influx of 17,000 additional troops into Afghanistan beginning in May, and McNabb is working to maintain "a lot of options . . . lots of ways to get in there" with cargo for those forces.
I have no doubt that Taliban attacks, even in Pakistan, won't do more than inconvenience us.
I have no doubt that we can get enough supplies into Afghanistan in normal circumstances to wage war?
Heck, I have no doubt we could supply the whole lot by air if we really had to. At least for a little while.
But this is not the problem. Sure, the cost will be high to do all this, but the real problem is if Pakistan flips to either neutral or enemy status and denies us both land and air corridors to Afghanistan. How will we supply our forces then? Will we have to escort our transports in and out of Afghanistan with fighter aircraft, fighting our way through?
What is the fine print for that guarantee?
