Feral Jundi

     So now reality sets in.  Crybaby Karzai is now going to set up a state-run trucking protection system to take control of NATO convoy security?  Just one problem–they don’t have a clue on how to do it or where to get the manpower. Because if you take troops from essential war duties, and shuffle them around to fill those jobs that PSCs filled, then now we are negatively impacting strategies that depended on those troops.

     Also, who says that these Afghan soldiers won’t steal from the convoys or get into firefights with insurgents in local populations?  Because these forces will probably react the same way that Afghan PSC’s reacted doing the same job.  They will probably be worse, because they will have to do some serious OJT to catch up to the capability of PSC’s.

     My guess is that we will continue to see PSCs operate on the road to some degree, just because there is another issue here that trumps the politics of Crybaby Karzai.  NATO is highly dependent on these supplies coming in from Pakistan and elswhere, and if Karzai cannot quickly raise this 5,000 man trucking brigade, then I don’t see any other choice but to continue to rely on contractors.

     The other area to look at is the impact that events in Pakistan have on supplies being brought over those mountains.  NATO helicopters killed several Pakistani soldiers in a friendly fire accident during a cross border assault on a fleeing Taliban group, and that event has caused some serious secondary effects.  Specifically, it has caused an uproar in Pakistan and the government there has decided to shut down trucking as pay back. The insurgents are getting into the action as well, and ramping up attacks on these trucks.

    Which brings up the next point and story.  Supposedly, Pakistan is not protecting these trucks.  The trucking companies have been screaming for protection by the government, or the right to self protection with armed security, and the Pakistani government has done neither. Amazing.

     Now take a lack of security and put that together with the government’s blocking of trucks at the border, and you have an opportunity for the enemy. The insurgents are taking advantage of the riff between the US and Pakistan over this latest incident by attacking the symbols of the US–which is these trucks with fuel and supplies on them. These attacks make the insurgents look like the good guys so these attacks have twice the impact on the war effort. It wins over the support of the population, and it disrupts and destroys NATO logistics. –Matt

Afghan wrestles with protecting NATO supply routes

Little security for Nato supply convoys

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Pakistani fire fighters try to extinguish burning NATO supply trucks carrying military vehicles and oil following militants attack on the outskirts of Islamabad on June 9, 2010.

Afghan wrestles with protecting NATO supply routes

October 3, 2010

By DION NISSENBAUM

Afghanistan’s top security officials are urging President Hamid Karzai to establish a military-run trucking system to take control of critical NATO supply routes now protected by a ragtag network of unsavory private security firms that is scheduled to be disbanded by year-end.

With the Karzai-imposed deadline looming to close the private convoy-protection companies, Afghanistan officials told McClatchy Newspapers on Sunday that they want to create a state-run military brigade equipped with its own trucks and thousands of soldiers to carry essential NATO supplies around the country.

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