Mornin' Unk,
My quarter is on the table...ante up and we shall see. But first we must understand the rules. In Hawk's post, he was referring to a brigade slice of the 101st...this is a one-third division slice...a much, much greater lift and logistic problem to sustain a force of this size than your "3+ battalions"...sounds to me like you are talking only straight-leg grunt battalions...
And, you have motivated me to go to my bottom bookshelf and dust off my American Oxford Atlas, 1951, (Edited by Brigadier Sir Clinton Lewis, O.B.E., Lately Surveyor -General of India and a Vice-President of the Royal Geographical Society...and have you ever known anyone with the name "Clinton" to tell a lie?.) Anyway, from feet dry in the Arabian Sea at a point 100 mi west of Karachi to Kabul is @ 680 mi. Add a 150 mi of blue water for operating room and bingo!, you've exceeded your 800 mi...hardly within helicopter range...I know, we can self-deploy '53s and refuel enroute, but that's a real stretch...so, I'll double or nothin' my bet that no brigade, Army or Marine, can launch from a sea platform and operate and be sustained 700 miles inland without overland logistic support and lots of it. Ain't gonna happen!
Ain't gonna happen from the north w/ a 2,000 LOC from the eastern Black Sea to likely staging areas in Turkmen...Make the Burma road look like a trip to Grama's. Airlift it into Turkmen?...pencil it out Ain't gonna happen...Depending on the patience and the political will of the American's and the Pakistani's, might happen across the 300 mi of Pakistan...that is the only choice I would hope for...
It's all moot...I don't think we'll need a full 1/3d div slice...your 3+ battalions, some operating in coordination with the NA, will begin to peel this onion...One of my favorite old sayings..."Don't kick over the rocks until you are ready to kill the snakes." is applicable.... More appropriate for the moment...Churchill's "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." and MLK's "We shall overcome."
Well, enough, Unk,...I enjoyed it...got to go to work.......God bless you and yours and God Bless America!...jjk |
