Retreat!

This is coolbert:

"Free supplies and open retreat are two essentials to the safety of an army or a fleet" - - Rear Admiral [Alfred Thayer] Mahan"

I am glad that Admiral Mahan is thinking along the same lines as I have been!

From the Chicago Tribune yesterday more bad news regarding the main supply route [MSR] for the American military in Afghan:

"36 tankers for NATO torched in Pakistan"

"Afghan supply route stays shut after strike kills Pakistani troops"

"Karachi, Pakistan - - Suspected militants in Pakistan set fire to nearly three dozen tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan on Friday, officials said, a day after three Pakistani soldiers were killed in a cross-border NATO air strike."

This "air strike" was a cross-border raid by MANNED HELICOPTERS AND NOT DRONES!! "Suspected" militants were the target but some Pakistani soldiers were killed instead!

The ire of the Pakistani is great over this. Drone strikes are OK, manned helicopters strikes are NOT!

These 36 fuel tankers had just fueled at the harbor in Karachi and were NOT EVEN EN ROUTE TO AFGHAN OR CLOSE TO THE BORDER AREA BETWEEN AFGHAN AND PAKISTAN - - NOT NEAR THE KHYBER PASS?

Ever since 2001 it has been my fear that U.S. and NATO forces could potentially find themselves in a situation - - untenable - - no retreat if required possible from the landlocked nation of Afghan, resupply becoming more or less impossible, the MSR severed!

"Free supplies and open retreat!"

Surrounded by unfriendly nations, where would the U.S. and NATO contingents go if the situation went from bad to worse? Fight their way out to where exactly?

Always keep in the back of your mind the British Christmas Day retreat from Kabul - - 1842!! 18,000 English troops and camp followers attempted a 90 mile march to the Khyber Pass - - ONLY ONE individual surviving!!

Worries and concerns about the Afghan MSR continue, and with good reason!

Post script: This attack against the tankers on Friday has been followed up by further "militant" violence directed against the Afghan MSR! Both on Saturday and today further "incidents" have occurred, with considerable damage in all cases. Three days in a row the MSR has been attacked! That cannot bode well.

coolbert.