Who's On the Door?
We're on the highway to hell.The Brits are leaving Basra.
Let's say -- just for the sake of argument -- that you wanted to start pulling American troops out of Iraq. It's not just the GI's, of course, it's the Humvees and tanks and maintenance equipment and munitions. The GI's can fly. The rest of the gear has to go by boat.
Now, see that map? See the closest -- only -- port? See how the road from Baghdad travels through Basra on its way to the sea? Basra, which is nominally in the hands of the Iraqi Army but, within a few weeks will be openly controlled by Shiite militias?
Now think of just how easy it is to disrupt a convoy.
Basra is the exit door. Iran and Muqtada al Sadr are the doormen.
This entry was posted by Michael Reynolds, on
Monday, September 03, 2007.
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7:59 PM
I had always thought the plan was to move everything to Kuwait and then out. It seems safer somehow.
On the other hand, if some logistical disaster resulted in U.S. military supplies being abandoned in Iraq, I'm sure somebody would find some use for them. At least they wouldn't go to waste.
8:04 PM
Click on the map and you see there is no road to Kuwait that does not pass through or very close to Basra.
Yep, I imagine they'd find something to do with left-behind tanks and artillery.
6:38 PM
Obviously only two options:
- leave all the hardware for the Iraqis (or Iranians, or whoever) to play with,
- relocate it to Kurdistan.
I vote for the second, in the unlikely event that anyone cares what a mere voter thinks. (As a bonus, if you take the second option, and recognize Kurdistan as a distinct nation, then you can even say that you have pulled out of Iraq. Maybe even with a straight face.)