Richard Perle resigns

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Fri Mar 28 13:58:10 PST 2003


At 3:58 PM -0500 3/28/03, Michael Pollak wrote:
>>_National Journal_ reporters detailing how Rumsfeld cut the
>>invasion force in half only four months ago,
>And we're sticking with that. The problem is that when we started
>we had half of the half. And that was because Turkey didn't budge.
At 3:58 PM -0500 3/28/03, Michael Pollak wrote:
>Actually the logistics were already messed up 4 months ago by dint
>of the fact we couldn't use Saudi Arabia to unload. Kuwait has one
>tenth its capacity and so takes 10 times as long. Not to mention
>the fact that materiel couldn't go across Europe by train and out
>Italy, but had to go out Rotterdam and around by boat because
>Austria wouldn't let us cross their territory.

That just shows you that every little bit of resistance and even reluctance helps.

The Iraqis are smartly attacking the supply lines -- the longest supply lines in American history.

***** ...The rapid advance of American forces through Iraq has left the spearhead of the army 300 miles away from its main base. As a result, the supply lines are stretched thin and are vulnerable to the kinds of attacks that have left this convoy standing still since Tuesday...

The Marine convoy is a gigantic thing, involving trucks and tankers and jeeps and tanks, carrying thousands of gallons of diesel fuel, millions of rounds of ammunition and crate upon crate of ready-made meals. So large is this caravan that it takes several hours for all of its vehicles to pass through a single point. Among its cargo is 160,000 gallons of fuel and 180 tons of ammunition.

Yet it is a measure of the voraciousness of the modern military that this convoy, 300 vehicles long, carries only enough supplies to last the First Marine Division a few days. Its guns can shoot thousands of shells in a single day; it takes as much as five gallons of fuel just to start the engine of an M-1 tank. The key to the Marines' logistical success is the ability to keep the train going, to keep more caravans, just as big, rolling north....

The Marine convoy stuck near Diwaniyah, for instance, has more than a dozen 60-foot-long fuel tankers. Each one carries 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

"I think about it a lot, getting hit," said a diesel truck driver. "I'm a sitting duck."...

(Dexter Filkins, "Endless Supply Convoy Is Frustrated Endlessly," March 28, 2003, <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/28/international/worldspecial/28CONV.html>) ***** -- Yoshie

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