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US Supplies Shrinking in Afghanistan
February 02, 2009
Chicago Tribune
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The milk is now pulled from the mess hall by 9 a.m., to ration the limited supply.
At the Camp Phoenix base store nearby, the shelves look bare. There's no Irish Spring Body Wash, no Doritos, no Tostitos Scoops, no Bayer Aspirin.
"We're having the same problems all over Afghanistan," said Randy Barnes, who manages warehouses for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, which operates stores at many of the bases where U.S. troops are deployed in the war on terror here.
For the Soldiers at Camp Phoenix, about 650 of whom are from the Illinois National Guard, the missing supplies underscore what senior military officials have been saying for months: U.S. and coalition troops must find new routes to supply what will be a rapidly growing force in Afghanistan, ones that avoid the treacherous border areas of Pakistan where convoys have been ambushed.
Supplying an army in any war is crucial; it's not just bullets and bombs, but everything from fuel to lettuce, that must be shipped in by the ton and the truckload. And a country like Afghanistan -- landlocked, mountainous and with few good roads -- poses enormously difficult challenges even without attacks by militants.
Gen. David Petraeus, the chief of U.S. Central Command, announced late last month that the military had reached transit deals with Russia and several Central Asian states to the north of Afghanistan, to provide an alternate route from Pakistan. But it's not yet clear whether any new route would be able to absorb the heavy traffic.
"It is very important as we increase the effort in Afghanistan that we have multiple routes that go into the country," Petraeus said.
President Barack Obama has made the fight against militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan -- rather than in Iraq -- his top priority in the war on terror. His administration is expected to send as many as 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in the coming months.
The supply-route challenge is politically sensitive; as long as the U.S. and coalition troops depend on Pakistan to move supplies, it's difficult to be too critical of its government's help in the war on terror. Some in Washington have questioned Pakistan's commitment.
But a route through Russia and neighboring countries is not necessarily a long-term solution either. The over-land route is much longer and more expensive, and dealing with repressive regimes in Central Asia also could pose political dilemmas.
Sensitive military goods, such as weapons and ammunition, are transported by military convoy or air, and have not been hurt by supply-route problems, officials say. Air transport for non-combat goods is prohibitively expensive and also logistically difficult.
Right now, subcontractors transport about 75 percent of non-sensitive military goods for U.S. troops and a smaller but significant amount for NATO troops from the port in Karachi, Pakistan, through the Torkham border crossing into Afghanistan. About 125 shipping containers pass through that crossing daily.
It's the shortest route to Kabul and Bagram Air Base, the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan, yet it goes through narrow roads, mountain passes and hostile areas.
Despite the risk, security is often lax. In recent months, Taliban-led militants have frequently attacked the military shipping containers, often stored by these subcontractors just outside Peshawar, Pakistan, in five ramshackle yards with little security and no barbed wire. Militants have destroyed more than 300 shipping containers so far, torching at least 80 Humvees for the Afghan National Army.
Pakistani officials blamed the subcontractors for sacrificing security for profit.
"There are two or three guards, no lights, no cameras. An office consists of an empty container, two broken-down chairs, no phone and no fax line," said Tariq Hayat Khan, the political agent for Khyber tribal agency, which includes the main road from Peshawar to Torkham. "By no stretch of the imagination can you call them shipping terminals. They've just started leveling fields and stacking containers. All they do is charge money and deliver from Point A to Point B."
Because of the escalating number of attacks, Pakistan has suspended traffic through this crossing three times in the past seven weeks to launch offensives against militants. At the other major crossing in Pakistan, through Chaman in Baluchistan province, tribesmen blockaded the road for five days recently because a tribesman was killed, stranding hundreds of trucks and fuel tankers.
Barnes said some of the destroyed containers set on fire near Peshawar were bound for stores at U.S. military bases. He said his company was still determining what was lost.
In a roadside bomb attack on the route a couple weeks ago, four shipping containers filled with "near beer," soda and water for the troops were hit, dooming the entire shipment bound for Camp Phoenix and Camp Eggers, said Lt. Col. Eric Little, 37, of Springfield, the garrison commander for Camp Phoenix.
Only at the end of January -- a month late -- did the last of 21 shipping containers with the personal goods of Illinois National Guard Soldiers arrive at Camp Phoenix.
"The majority of stuff makes it from Point A to Point B -- but not necessarily timely," said Little, adding that finding other supply routes was a necessity.
Taliban-led militants are not the only ones to blame. Some drivers are known to steal fuel and supplies from the trucks, or fake militant attacks and sell the goods, commonly available at markets in Kabul and near Bagram. Islamic holidays and tribal conflicts have also been used as an excuse for the massive delays.
Although the supply-route problems are not yet hurting the military effort here, they affect daily life at the bases, at least at Camp Phoenix, usually one of the most well-stocked because it is in the capital.
"I've never seen the store this empty, ever," said Ula Loi, the store manager.
The troops can still get medicine from the medical tents, where the stocked supplies are plentiful, so the only immediate shortages are quality-of-life ones, which probably won't win much sympathy from Soldiers in more remote bases. Still, most snacks, half the beauty products, and all the adapter plugs and combination locks are sold out.
Last week, several Illinois National Guard Soldiers complained about the empty shelves -- one traded a pack of spare razor blades for a bag of chips, neither of which were available.
"They don't even have any Vaseline," said 2nd Lt. Michael Quam, 27, from Dubuque, Iowa, who wanted Vaseline for an Afghan friend whose wife just had a baby.
February 02, 2009
Chicago Tribune
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The milk is now pulled from the mess hall by 9 a.m., to ration the limited supply.
At the Camp Phoenix base store nearby, the shelves look bare. There's no Irish Spring Body Wash, no Doritos, no Tostitos Scoops, no Bayer Aspirin.
"We're having the same problems all over Afghanistan," said Randy Barnes, who manages warehouses for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, which operates stores at many of the bases where U.S. troops are deployed in the war on terror here.
For the Soldiers at Camp Phoenix, about 650 of whom are from the Illinois National Guard, the missing supplies underscore what senior military officials have been saying for months: U.S. and coalition troops must find new routes to supply what will be a rapidly growing force in Afghanistan, ones that avoid the treacherous border areas of Pakistan where convoys have been ambushed.
Supplying an army in any war is crucial; it's not just bullets and bombs, but everything from fuel to lettuce, that must be shipped in by the ton and the truckload. And a country like Afghanistan -- landlocked, mountainous and with few good roads -- poses enormously difficult challenges even without attacks by militants.
Gen. David Petraeus, the chief of U.S. Central Command, announced late last month that the military had reached transit deals with Russia and several Central Asian states to the north of Afghanistan, to provide an alternate route from Pakistan. But it's not yet clear whether any new route would be able to absorb the heavy traffic.
"It is very important as we increase the effort in Afghanistan that we have multiple routes that go into the country," Petraeus said.
President Barack Obama has made the fight against militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan -- rather than in Iraq -- his top priority in the war on terror. His administration is expected to send as many as 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in the coming months.
The supply-route challenge is politically sensitive; as long as the U.S. and coalition troops depend on Pakistan to move supplies, it's difficult to be too critical of its government's help in the war on terror. Some in Washington have questioned Pakistan's commitment.
But a route through Russia and neighboring countries is not necessarily a long-term solution either. The over-land route is much longer and more expensive, and dealing with repressive regimes in Central Asia also could pose political dilemmas.
Sensitive military goods, such as weapons and ammunition, are transported by military convoy or air, and have not been hurt by supply-route problems, officials say. Air transport for non-combat goods is prohibitively expensive and also logistically difficult.
Right now, subcontractors transport about 75 percent of non-sensitive military goods for U.S. troops and a smaller but significant amount for NATO troops from the port in Karachi, Pakistan, through the Torkham border crossing into Afghanistan. About 125 shipping containers pass through that crossing daily.
It's the shortest route to Kabul and Bagram Air Base, the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan, yet it goes through narrow roads, mountain passes and hostile areas.
Despite the risk, security is often lax. In recent months, Taliban-led militants have frequently attacked the military shipping containers, often stored by these subcontractors just outside Peshawar, Pakistan, in five ramshackle yards with little security and no barbed wire. Militants have destroyed more than 300 shipping containers so far, torching at least 80 Humvees for the Afghan National Army.
Pakistani officials blamed the subcontractors for sacrificing security for profit.
"There are two or three guards, no lights, no cameras. An office consists of an empty container, two broken-down chairs, no phone and no fax line," said Tariq Hayat Khan, the political agent for Khyber tribal agency, which includes the main road from Peshawar to Torkham. "By no stretch of the imagination can you call them shipping terminals. They've just started leveling fields and stacking containers. All they do is charge money and deliver from Point A to Point B."
Because of the escalating number of attacks, Pakistan has suspended traffic through this crossing three times in the past seven weeks to launch offensives against militants. At the other major crossing in Pakistan, through Chaman in Baluchistan province, tribesmen blockaded the road for five days recently because a tribesman was killed, stranding hundreds of trucks and fuel tankers.
Barnes said some of the destroyed containers set on fire near Peshawar were bound for stores at U.S. military bases. He said his company was still determining what was lost.
In a roadside bomb attack on the route a couple weeks ago, four shipping containers filled with "near beer," soda and water for the troops were hit, dooming the entire shipment bound for Camp Phoenix and Camp Eggers, said Lt. Col. Eric Little, 37, of Springfield, the garrison commander for Camp Phoenix.
Only at the end of January -- a month late -- did the last of 21 shipping containers with the personal goods of Illinois National Guard Soldiers arrive at Camp Phoenix.
"The majority of stuff makes it from Point A to Point B -- but not necessarily timely," said Little, adding that finding other supply routes was a necessity.
Taliban-led militants are not the only ones to blame. Some drivers are known to steal fuel and supplies from the trucks, or fake militant attacks and sell the goods, commonly available at markets in Kabul and near Bagram. Islamic holidays and tribal conflicts have also been used as an excuse for the massive delays.
Although the supply-route problems are not yet hurting the military effort here, they affect daily life at the bases, at least at Camp Phoenix, usually one of the most well-stocked because it is in the capital.
"I've never seen the store this empty, ever," said Ula Loi, the store manager.
The troops can still get medicine from the medical tents, where the stocked supplies are plentiful, so the only immediate shortages are quality-of-life ones, which probably won't win much sympathy from Soldiers in more remote bases. Still, most snacks, half the beauty products, and all the adapter plugs and combination locks are sold out.
Last week, several Illinois National Guard Soldiers complained about the empty shelves -- one traded a pack of spare razor blades for a bag of chips, neither of which were available.
"They don't even have any Vaseline," said 2nd Lt. Michael Quam, 27, from Dubuque, Iowa, who wanted Vaseline for an Afghan friend whose wife just had a baby.
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