Supply routes to Afghanistan

[carl]

Here is a link to a Bloomberg article about the Karachi supply line. Not only is it open or shut at the whim of the killers in the Pak Army/ISI, when it is open the amount of theft is mind numbing. Possibly tens of thousands of containers have gone walkabout.

http://www.businessweek.com/printer/...-12142011.html

Is there any earthly good the Pak Army/ISI is doing us? (The foregoing is a rhetorical question.)

[ganulv]

Is there any earthly good the Pak Army/ISI is doing us? (The foregoing is a rhetorical question.)

If nothing else, the decade in AfPak will surely be the last time the United States Government convinces itself that a self-interested and morally compromised cabal will develop a respect for TJATAW if they receive talking–tos about the importance of transparency in governance and respect for human rights every time the blank check is handed over.

[carl]

Ganulv: You underestimate the invincible regard the US Gov has for itself and its actions. It will be interesting though, in the art of rhetoric sense, to see how they go about justifying everything they've done as not only having been brilliant and effective, but as a model for the future.

[davidbfpo]

Opens with:

Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, signed a new defence co-operation agreement with Kazakhstan which the British Government hopes will enable an estimated £4 billion of equipment – including tanks and armoured personnel carriers – to be shipped out of northern Afghanistan.

Later this sentence struck me as, well, odd:

The Taliban have made clear that their guidance to Taliban fighters is not to attack Nato convoys passing through the north

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...ithdrawal.html

Not to overlook that the Pakistani routes remain closed since November, which must surely be a record for the usual "stop & go" practice.

[davidbfpo]

Undoubtedly Sec. of Defence Leon Panetta's visit to the region led to these two NYT stories, but I do wonder if someone is adroitly coordinating the diplomatic process.

First:

One of Kyrgyzstan’s top defense officials told Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta on Tuesday that a crucial United States air base (Manas) here should have “no military mission” when its lease expires a little more than two years from now. The request creates a potential hurdle to American plans to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/wo...html?ref=world

Then:

The Kremlin expressed willingness on Wednesday to allow NATO to use an airfield (Ulyanovsk) in the heart of European Russia, in a city best known as Lenin’s birthplace, as a transit center for moving troops and “nonlethal” cargo into Afghanistan.

Some comments by the Russian minister on why the West should remain in Afghanistan too.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/wo...nsit.html?_r=1