This is coolbert:
From the Chicago Tribune today:
“NATION & WORLD”
“Pakistan closes route for supplies”
“PESHAWAR, Pakistan - - Container trucks and oil tankers bound for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan have suspended deliveries after militant attacks prompted Pakistan to block a major supply line, highlighting the vulnerability of the mountain passage.”
“The ban in northwest Pakistan . . . was intended to allow for a review of security in the famed Khyber Pass”
“The suspension could be lifted as early as Monday today with new procedures in place”
NOT A TOTAL CESSATION OF ALL TRAFFIC, ONLY TEMPORARY??!!
Again, as has been the subject of previous blog entry, the Main Supply Route [MSR] for NATO and American forces in Afghan starts at the port of Karachi, travels north through the Khyber Pass by either road or narrow-gauge railway [?], the terminus being Kabul. 70 % of all NATO and American supplies for the Afghan war effort take this perilous route!
A route now being interdicted and disrupted by the locals and those of the Taliban persuasion.
My worst fears are now being confirmed?
The way the English would have handled this, back in the days of the British Raj, would be to locate the local “headman”, pay him an appropriate bribe, allow him to loot a certain percentage [%] of all cargo, and the problem would be solved!!
“Peachey and Danny, where are you when we need you!!??”
coolbert.
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1 comment:
Along with most of the railways in Pakistan and India, the Khyber Pass railway is 5'6" broad gauge, rather than narrow gauge. It stops before the Afghan border, and is unlikely to be of much military significance these days.
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