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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (91552)	12/15/2004 11:44:19 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Gee, things don't seem to be going so well in Iraq at the moment. We are going to fly our troops around and such because the ground routes are so dangerous. On Hardball tonight, a retired general said that he gave us a 50-50 chance of prevailing, down from 60-40 a few months ago. Hmmmmmmmmmm . . . U.S. Cuts Risky Ground Convoys in Iraq by Expanding Airlifts By ERIC SCHMITT Published: December 14, 2004 ASHINGTON, Dec. 14 - The Air Force is sharply expanding its airlifts of equipment and supplies to bases inside Iraq to reduce the amount of military cargo normally hauled in ground convoys vulnerable to roadside bombings, Air Force officials said today. Dozens of C-130 and C-17 transport planes are ferrying about 450 short tons of cargo a day, including trucks, spare parts, food, water and medical supplies and other materiel that normally moves by land routes, a 30 percent increase in the past month. In that time period, the increased air operations have kept more than 400 trucks and about 1,050 drivers with military escorts off the most dangerous roads in Iraq, Air Force officials said. American military convoys have been suffering about 100 deaths and injuries a month. The increased airlift operations started in early November at the urging of Gen. John P. Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff. He told reporters today that he threw "a little fit" when he discovered on a visit to Iraq last month that air and ground commanders were not focusing on ways to give relief to ground convoys that come under regular attack, especially in the Sunni-dominated areas north and west of Baghdad. "Taking the trucks off the most dangerous routes where we have the most of the trouble has become a goal," General Jumper told reporters at a breakfast meeting. Flying cargo is more expensive and less efficient than hauling supplies over land, but the Air Force's decision reflects the judgment of air and ground commanders that the insurgency will continue to pose a lethal threat to American supply lines, and that extraordinary steps must be taken to ensure the safe flow of cargo and to reduce American casualties. The increased airlift, first reported in The Washington Post on Sunday, started weeks before soldiers in Kuwait complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld last week that they were being sent to combat in Iraq without enough armored equipment to protect them. But it underscores the concern that troops and their commanders have in moving by land around the country. Mr. Rumsfeld's response to the troops that "you go to war with the Army you have" continues to draw sharp criticism. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of allied forces in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, said in an interview with MSNBC on Monday, "I was very, very disappointed - let me put it stronger, I was angry - by the words of the secretary of defense." nytimes.com