Uboat wrote:

Can you point to any circumstance when a front line guys didn't eat because of contractors? I don't know about the Marines but there are plenty of Army log convoys traveling all over Iraq. If there is a place where the contractors won't go because it is too dangerous then we have military log guys to carry supply to those areas. Just because we have contractors carrying a lot of the stuff does not mean that our log don't carry any. Presumably it is the same with the Marines.
I can send you specific details in a private message, but I don't want to get into it on the open list.

But generally, I understand full well that, in combat, front line logistics are a bear. I know that at times supply and support can be severely constrained, and troops must make do with very little. I also know how powerful the urge to give the troops as much as possible can be -- so much so that commanders have at times unnecessarily risked the lives of their troops to do so. I do not, however, have much tolerance for a system that can leave some out in the cold when but a few miles away guys are eating ice cream -- all the while, the contractor is still paid. That's just ridiculous.

Now it's your turn. Explain for me and Ski how the sort of quality of life efforts being made on behalf of the vast majority of Americans deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan is not harming our COIN effort. Can you justify generators being run non-stop to keep the lobsters and ice cream on ice while most Iraqis are still without a reliable electrical system? How do you propose for the Iraqi Army to learn how to DIY their own logistics at the battalion level when they have no model from which to learn?

Regards,
Jill