The Surge is Failing and We're Hurting the Troops by
Larry C Johnson
Some brave soul in the U.S. military sent Pat Lang a memo issued Monday that shows the U.S. ability to support its troops is collapsing and very vulnerable to disruption. Download iraq_food_deliveries.pdf

The memo states:

Due to a theater-wide delay in food delivery, menu selections will be limited for the near future. While every effort will be made to provide balanced meals, it may not be possible to offer the dishes you are used to seeing at each meal. Fresh fruits and salad bar items will also be severely limited or unavailable.

The bottomline is that our troops depend on a ground supply line that runs from Kuwait to the various bases in Iraq. When I was in Iraq last year at the U.S. base in Balad I had the chance to eat four meals a day--breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight rations (midrats). If you like late nights the midrats were great--steak, eggs, pancakes. Pretty good food. Well, based on this memo, it looks like those were the good old days. We don't have enough convoys to give our troops three hot meals a day. We want them to step up the patrolling. We want them to search 24-7 for missing soldiers. But, by God, they don't deserve three hot meals a day.

Excuse my rudeness, but that is fucked up. Way to go General Petraeus.

UPDATE: I've received a note from a journalist buddy who say's that the US military Public Affairs Officer in Baghdad says this is a phony document. We'll see. I sure hope that is the case. But it does not undermine the basic point of the vulnerability of the U.S. supply line. Another recently returned U.S. military officer told a close friend of mine that they are worried that the recent string of attacks on bridges in Baghdad foreshadow an offensive by insurgent groups to cut off and isolate U.S. forces in the city. By taking out several bridges they can channel U.S. Quick Reaction Forces into ambush zones. Not good.

UPDATE II: Glad to see the ass clowns of rightwing world are flooding in. Appreciate the boost in page views. Anyway, these clowns have reading disabilities or cannot comprehend simple english. The following article in the Washington Post confirmed the story as I had it initially. Yet, I realize that with these mental midgets even the simple words accompanied by quotes from officials in Iraq means nothing. Their collective heads are lodged firmly in each other's ass and they enjoy both the view and the odor.

FINAL UPDATE: Welcome ass clowns and trolls. The memo is accurate. My understanding is that it was sent out as an email communication. The approving officer "MGT/S. Muench" is a Ms. Sandra Muench who, as of last October, held the rank of Management Counselor with the Department of State. Please note that although this is a State Department/Embassy communication it is the U.S. military controlled supply line we're talking about.

We are more than four years into a war that George W. Bush declared as "Mission Accomplished" in May of 2003. Yet, the United States cannot ensure that Baghdad and the various military bases receive the basic supplies that keep a normal, peaceful city operating. No one has issued a memo dictating that U.S. Government employees in Washington or New York must eat MREs because the supply line is in trouble. Why? Because we live in a society that is at peace and we enjoy a secure, safe environment. Not so in Iraq and the trend line--three months into a surge--the supplies are falling behind and more troops have been killed. Unfortunately, these are facts that rightwing nuts and neocon ass-lickers will not understand.

Posted by Larry Johnson on Wednesday, 23 May 2007

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