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
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>