| Tyrone Slothrop |
04-06-2004 06:36 PM |
More From Mylroie
Quote:
Originally posted by sgtclub
The operational factors precluding invasion do not hold up to scrutiny. See my prior posts.
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Was it something other than this:
Quote:
Originally posted by sgtclub
I think what I'm suggesting is something more than a few cruise missles and more along the lines of 2002. I don't recall Congress declaring war in Bosnia/Serbia either, and we didn't stage in Pakistan in 2002 anyway. Not sure about Uzbekistan, but given that they are New Europe, I doubt they would have had a problem.
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I'm missing any real "scrutiny" of the operational factors constraining our ability to put troops on the ground in a landlocked country not adjacent to any of our allies. Pakistan wasn't really with us until we put it to them after 9/11. Remember how 9/11 "changed everything"? That was one of the things. It's still not clear what you think we should have done, or how it could have been done.
And you're just wrong about the use of bases. Invading Afghanistan required the use of facilities in a bunch of countries throughout Central Asia, including Pakistan and Qatar. Domestic political considerations in these countries would have made staging a war against another Muslim country pretty impossible before 9/11, and we just couldn't invade the country staging out of Diego Garcia.
Don't believe me -- according to the US Army War College Quarterly:
- America is fortunate that Osama bin Laden chose to locate in Afghanistan, a country without ballistic missiles or weapons of mass destruction—or for that matter, even a conventional army of any size. Taliban and al Qaeda forces numbered about 50,000, one-tenth the size of the Iraqi forces engaged in Desert Storm, but about the same size as Serbian forces in Kosovo. US forces could attack Afghanistan with impunity. The only real challenge was the remote geography and lack of existing agreements with neighboring states regarding base rights.
(Reminds me I've got to renew my subscription.)
We didn't stage in Pakistan? Wrong. See the South Asia Tribune story linked above:
- But more mind boggling are the other stats revealed by the Centcom about use of Pakistani air and ground space and facilities provided for Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). For instance the Centcom data reveals that:
- Pakistan provided five air bases/airfields. However in emergency planes could land anywhere in Pakistan.
- On the average 400,000 liters of fuel per day was provided to US.
- A total of 57,800 sorties were generated from Pakistan’s air space/soil.
- In order to facilitate launching of air ops into Afghanistan, Pakistan provided 2/3rd of its air space as air corridor to the US/Coalition Forces. By so doing, Pakistan had to reschedule/ redirect many of its commercial flights.
- Pakistan Navy provided landing facility to the US/Coalition ships at Pasni.
- At sea, Pakistan Navy operations/training were curtailed in order to accommodate and facilitate the operations of US/Coalition Naval Forces.
- According to the US Marine Corps Gazette of June 2002, the Coalition Naval Operations at Pasni were the largest amphibious operations in size, duration and depth that the Marine Corps had conducted since the Korean War.
- In all, 8,000 Marines, 330 vehicles and over 1350 tons of equipment/logistic were off loaded at the beach and later flown to Kandahar from Pasni.
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