The only two land routes we have are through Pakistan or through Uzbekistan (I think — it's one of the “stans”). Our options are the Russians or the Pakis. Both are hostile and suspect alliances, HOWEVER, if I had to enforce the open supply line to our troops (and I'm no military genius), I'd put MY money on being able to keep them open in Pakistan. If we tried to enforce our open lines in Russia, we'd bring in the Chinese faster than you can say, “Screwed”.
Thus, therefore, if my only child is going to wind up in Afghanistan fighting the “real” :-( war, I want his cherished behind supplied, as safe as it is humanly possible to make it and with little or no resistance to keeping it so.
>>I’d put MY money on being able to keep them open in Pakistan.
I think you’d lose, there have been numerous attacks on staging areas for the convoys, destroying numerous trucks, causing much loss of materiel, remember the jihadis manage to hijack a truck with a helicopter last year.....
Peashwar, the logistical hub, is virtually a jihadi run city.
The move to Russian supply routes was undertaken by Bush because of the deteriorating situation in Peshawar.
Absolute insanity. At a point in history when South America is being lost to Socialist Tyrants, Central America is about to Erupt with a Civil War on and across our Southern Border, Eastern Europe is under threat from Russia Invasion (Georgia) and Civil War (Ukraine), the Middle East is about to erupt with an Iran/Israel War, the United States leadership is sending more troops to Afghanistan to protect the Poppy and Goat trade. The reality is that this is all about the loose nukes in Pakistan that are in the hands of terrorist sympathizers.