Us Cold Warriors aren’t always the clueless, out of touch dinosaurs we’re misunderestimated as. M K Bhadrakumar has a very interesting piece over at Asia Times which you should read all of, especially this:
US’s Caucasian thrust
Thus, the US has begun developing an altogether new land route through the southern Caucasus to Afghanistan, which doesn’t exist at present. The US is working on the idea of ferrying cargo for Afghanistan via the Black Sea to the port of Poti in Georgia and then dispatching it through the territories of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. A branch line could also go from Georgia via Azerbaijan to the Turkmen-Afghan border.The project, if it materializes, will be a geopolitical coup – the biggest ever that Washington would have swung in post-Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus. At one stroke, the US will be tying up military cooperation at the bilateral level with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
We went to Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden, but that’s not why we stayed. We are still there for a number of good reasons, some of which are difficult to strategically communicate, especially to those elements within our own polity who hate that we’re the Global Hegemon and seek to undermine every effort to keep us at the top of the food chain. The Himalayas, Pamirs and Hindu Kush are Heartland‘s high ground. Lily pads on the roof of the World-Island are clue bats focusing the attention of regional powers and aspiring challengers on our presence in their back yards, and on our capabilities to project pain on to regimes which allow nonstate actors to plot and launch attacks on us from areas these regimes claim to exercise sovereignty over.
I think the United States reacted to the Russo-Georgian War the way we did because we had plans for Georgia.
I think my concerns over OEF logistics are being addressed.
Maybe our senior leadership was smarter than I gave them credit for. Smarter than their replacements will ever give them credit for.
If there’s going to be a LOGCAP V along that new Cracker Line, send me. What’s the uplift for BF Kazakhstan?
H/T: Amy Zalman
Civilian Irregular Information Defense Group 
Fascinating. I was wondering how we’d overcome the geography – particularly as the overland route through the Pak is becoming more tenuous. Baldly Smith would approve.
Projecting power to the opposite side of the Earth ain’t for sissies.
I’m sure you’ve seen this update. The Kyber appears closed. Shades of Chattanooga and the Cracker Line.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/pakistan.afghanistan.border/
BTW, I’m flattered that you linked to my site as a ‘resister.’ I’m very new on the block, so it’s nice to see that someone’s noticed my humble efforts.
I like the title. Even those of us in red states will be Stay Behinds in 2o days.
There is a lot going on along the roads from Karachi to Kabul that few Americans will ever know about. We won’t be told how bad they hurt us for quite some time. It is possible that they really aren’t constricting our logistics as much as they would like to think they are. I know for a fact that big FOBs like Kandahar and Bagram are lavishly supported and could if required reduce consumption significantly for weeks.
The “Taliban” and people who find it convenient to be mistaken for Taliban are hitting the trucking companies, the container yards and the drivers up for protection. La mordida. Probably some Pashtun Jimmy Hoffas.
The Pak (and indeed the Central Asian area) has been one big bazaar for over a thousand years. I’m sure you’re right – we won’t know half of the fighting and deal-making in the area for some time to come. I’m dubious, however, about a more northerly supply route through the ‘stans’. The whole area is unstable as hell – even my Russian friends think the area is crazy-land.
BTW, your post on Parrot guns was very intersting. I couldn’t post a comment there, so I’ll do it here. On the day after Christmas I was walking the Manassas battlefield and I was admiring Rickett’s 10-pounders lined up in battery along the federal line between the Henry House and present-day visitors center. Talk about tactical blunders: pushing long-range guns (unsupported by infantry) to within range of enemy musketry. Particularly at Griffin’s position, which was only 100 yards from the woods concealing the VA infantry.
But a great gun, nevertheless.
I don’t know what happened to close comments on that thread. I tried to fix it but couldn’t figure out how. I’m not really a computer guy. More a knuckle dragger with a wordpress account.
The first muzzle loading piece I ever served was a 3-inch Parrott Rifle named The Orphan. I was a proud member of that gun detachment for four years.
I’ve never seen Civil War arty in action. I hope I will someday. When you fired The Orphan, did you fire a projectile with a full charge? What are the precautions involved with old iron?
BTW, in 1961 I lived in Lawton, OK while my father (a reserve captain) went through the arty school at Sill. It was pretty heady stuff for a six-year old to see tube arty and battlefield rockets (Honest John and Little John) in action during demonstrations. I’ve had a soft spot for Red Legs ever since.
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Hi C4.
Looks like the ‘cracker line’ is on:
http://www.behindbluelines.com/2009/01/15/overland-to-afghanistan/
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