Logistics Contra Obama
Martha Raddatz of ABC News reports that US commanders in Iraq believe US troops should remain to insure security.
Key quote:
We spent a day with Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond in Sadr City. He is the commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which is responsible for Baghdad. Hammond will likely be one of the commanders who briefs Barack Obama when he visits Iraq.
“We still have a ways to go. Number one, we’re working on security and it’s very encouraging, that’s true, but what we’re really trying to achieve here is sustainable security on Iraqi terms. So, I think my first response to that would be let’s look at the conditions.
“Instead of any time-based approach to any decision for withdrawal, it’s got to be conditions-based, with the starting point being an intelligence analysis of what might be here today, and what might lie ahead in the future. I still think we still have work that remains to be done before I can really answer that question,” Hammond said when asked how he would feel about an order to start drawing down two combat brigades a month.
When it comes to defense, security, and military issues, Raddatz is by far ABC News’ most knowledgeable reporter.
But even a candidate able to create an Oz of words cannot finesse the logistical reality.
From the Raddatz’ “logistics” section:Success on the battlefield is not the only complication with Obama’s plan.
Physically removing the combat brigades within that kind of time frame would be difficult, as well.
The military has been redeploying troops for years, and Maj. Gen. Charles Anderson, who would help with the withdrawal, told us as we toured Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, “We have the capacity to do a minimum of two-and-a-half brigade combat teams a month — can we expand that capacity? Sure. Can we accelerate? It depends. It depends on the amount of equipment that we bring back. And it’s going to depend on how fast we bring them out.”
And Raddatz provides an example:
Two combat brigades means up to 1,200 humvees in addition to thousands of other pieces of equipment, like trucks, fuelers, tankers and helicopters.
And 90 percent of the equipment would have to be moved by ground through the Iraqi war zone, to the port in Kuwait, where it must all be cleaned and inspected and prepared for shipment. This is a place with frequent dust storms, limited port facilities and limited numbers of wash racks.
Trucks. Ships. Planes. Moving people and things. Why, geography– and we’re not talking a mind glitch like 57 states. This is about a basic understanding of material reality, not political poetry. Obama may move hearts with a well-turned phrase, and get Chris Matthews knees to tingle, but how good is he at scheduling convoys? The image the hard left has of a US withdrawal is a helicopter fetching fleeing staff from the top of the Saigon, Vietnam embassy. That’s the liturgical icon of the “withdraw now” crowd. Of course I think Obama will “refine” his Iraqi policy so that it becomes something very much like–well, like Bush’s.
We’ve an emerging success in Iraq –the Strategic Overwatch scenario in this post provides an analytic a projection. This success has been building for four years and unfortunately it will take a decade for politicized passions to cool before the sober reassessment occurs. Then we’ll be bombarded with theses and books and a few mea culpas about the trail of successes evident amid the failures, the dead, the bombs, the terror. In war the enemy gets a vote. The good guys also get a vote. Over time the votes mount up, the destruction mounts, but so does the construction. In Iraq the construction by the Iraqi people and the coalition is mounting. In Iraq the enemy –Al Qaeda, the Saddamists, Shia gangsters– had the tactically “easy” route: destruction and chaos designed to obtain psychologically damaging headlines and spread fear and doubt. The Iraqi people and the coalition had to construct as well as fight. That’s tough tactically and operationally but strategically wise.
cialis generic impotence kamagra viagra viagra Buy Penis Growth Oil Online
viagra freesample offer
buy cheap viagra Buy Soma Online
generac viagra
canadian online pharmacy viagra Buy Viagra Soft Tabs Online
pfizer viagra and its cautions
viagra definition Buy Viagra Professional Online
mexican pharmacy and viagra
low cost generic viagra Buy Female Viagra Online
prescription free viagra
viagra without presciption online Buy Cialis Soft Tabs Online
viagra and cirrhosis
order viagra cheap Buy Viagra Online
viagra florida delivery
your source for phentermine adipex viagra Buy Penis Growth Pills Online
7 xenical viagra zyban proscar
thailand viagra Buy Tramadol Online
viagra hypertension nitroglycerin
buy taladafil viagra Buy Phentermine Online
best price on viagra
viagra alternative research Buy Penis Extender Online
cheap herbal viagra
buy viagra cheapest best prices online Buy Levitra Online
uk biggest viagra gang
viagra best prices Buy Cialis Online
prisoners and viagra
cialis viagra differences Buy Levitra Professional Online
viagra and half-life
viagra costs australia Buy Cialis Professional Online
viagra starter
buy in uk viagra Buy Penis Growth Pack Online
wall street journal viagra
viagra lima Buy VPXL Online
best price generic viagra
David Gallula would approve.
Comment by steve — 7/11/2008 @ 1:24 pm
Hope.
Change.
These will overcome the racism of your materialistic facts and figures.
The Obamessiah has spoken!
Comment by Fidel, MD — 7/11/2008 @ 1:28 pm
So we’re in a quagmire, but it’s a good quagmire, right?
Comment by Brendan — 7/11/2008 @ 2:16 pm
Cynically, Obama does not appear to be a fan of the military or projecting military power, except against Pakistan in its tribal areas. Maybe it is a feature rather than a bug.
Comment by EntropyIncreases — 7/11/2008 @ 2:20 pm
Obama is racist and anti-American. He’s morally unfit to be a dogcatcher.
Comment by jim — 7/11/2008 @ 2:33 pm
Ignoring the logistics of his plans aren’t limited to Sen. Obama’s Iraq policies. They’re equally a problem with what he’s said about Afghanistan/Pakistan. And he’s counting his withdrawal dividend before the costs of withdrawing, redeployment, and making the forces ready again have been reckoned.
Comment by Dave Schuler — 7/11/2008 @ 2:41 pm
Once again proof of the old adage that amateurs talk tactics, while professionals talk logistics. This applies to Afghanistan as well, when I hear loose lipped fools talking about how we should send 100,000 troops to Afghanistan. Of course, they never think about how such a force would be sustained.
As to the larger point, victory over any insugency requires time. When one considers how long it took the Brits and Malayans to successfully get the MCP insurgency under control, what we have done is pretty impressive.
Comment by Rich — 7/11/2008 @ 3:21 pm
The only real option to get all that “stuff” out of Iraq is through Kuwait due to the fact they have the largest port facility in the Gulf.
The real contstricting point here are the Wash Racks; because this stuff is going back stateside it all has to be cleaned and cleared by Customs before getting on a ship. From personal expierence it took 5 guys 9 hours to clean one truck.
There are only so many spots to clean vehicles and it takes time to clean a truck. Unless the US decides to loosen Agricultural Restrictions stuff is going to move through AJ very slowly…
Comment by anon — 7/14/2008 @ 8:44 am