2. December 18, 2006 Issue of The American Conservative
HOW TO LOSE AN ARMY
Plow deep into Iraq and dare Iran to strike.by William S. Lind
<snip> . . .The Iranians have said that this time they have 140,000 American hostages, in the form of U.S. troops in Iraq. If either Israel or the U.S. attacks Iran, we could lose an army.
How could such a thing happen? The danger springs from the fact that almost all the supplies our forces in Iraq use, including vital fuel for their vehicles, comes over one supply line, which runs toward the south and the port in Kuwait. If that line were cut, our forces might not have enough fuel to get out of Iraq. American armies are enormously fuel-thirsty.
One might think that fuel would be abundant in Iraq, which is (or was) a major oil exporter. In fact, because of the ongoing chaos, Iraq is short of refined oil products. Our forces, if cut off from their own logistics, could not simply fuel up at local gas stations as German Gen. Heinz Guderian’s Panzer Corps did on its way to the English Channel in the 1940 campaign against France.
There are two ways, not mutually exclusive, that Iran could attempt to cut our supply line in Iraq in response to an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. . .
from this current OP:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3120141I express my humble opinion on this matter graphically, right here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3057434