US thinks the unthinkable: asking Iran for help with supply routes

The Times ^ | 2/26/2009 | Catherine Philp

[bruinbirdman]

It has been a grim couple of weeks for the snack lovers of Camp Phoenix. First Doritos, then Snickers, now Coca-Cola: all have disappeared from the usually packed shelves of the camp store. They were among the more expendable supplies lost when the Pakistani Taleban set fire to containers bound for US bases in Afghanistan close to the Khyber Pass.

The denuded shelves underline a far more serious problem for the US: how to fuel the military effort in Afghanistan in the face of diminishing regional leverage and growing opposition from neighbours.

Weeks of attacks by the Taleban on convoys from Karachi to the Khyber Pass and the decision by Kyrgyzstan to close the only US airbase in the region have left the US scrambling to find new routes at the very moment it is planning an influx of 17,000 troops.

The search has taken the US right into the backyard of Russia, in Central Asia. Yesterday Uzbekistan confirmed that it would allow non-military cargo bound for Afghanistan to be transported through its territory. President Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan also said that his country would be willing to give passage to humanitarian cargo. In return he is likely to expect the volume to be lowered on the dubious human rights record of his country.

What Washington has yet to prise out of Central Asia, however, is a permanent base such as the one it stands to lose at Manas after Russia offered $2 billion (£1.5 billion) in aid to Kyrgyzstan.

“Russia views Central Asia as its unique sphere of influence,” Alex Neill, an Asia analyst at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said. “It doesn’t want Nato there any more than it wants them in Eastern Europe.”

Russia has also agreed to allow its territory to be used for the

[bruinbirdman]

As to Russia's offer. Right up Hussein's alley. Cut a deal with the Rooskies and he gets a reason to stop ABM's in Poland, undercuts NATO leverage in East Europe.

Cutting a deal with Iran proves that Hussein's diplomacy works, Iran gets nukes, terrorist threats over.

[gondramB]

Oh come on.... I hate it when the news becomes indistinguishable from the Onion.

[Tzimisce]

This sucks.

[familyop]

The diplomat women object to Turkmenistan because of the lack of services.

[livius]

I seriously believe that when we leave Iraq - which Bambi has accelerated - he is going to formally hand it over to Iran. The dictatorial, backwards, repressive terrorist state of Iran is going to become the big power player in the ME and even SE Asia, and we will have made it that.

This dishonors all those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan and furthermore hands over millions of people to Islamic tyranny. Way to go, Barry.

[IrishCatholic]

Actually I would have to go against the grain of most Freepers here and say that asking Iran is a common sense idea. After all, the munitions being made to kill US servicemen come from Iran. So they already have an established trade route.

With Clinton fresh off the US Apology Tour, and Iran giving sign that they would open diplomatic channels to the US if we only apologize for crimes against Iran, this is a great way to show how sorry we are to be Americans and how much we hate our country.

Welcome to the new US foreign policy initiatives.