Asked which road he feared most, 40-year-old driver Mohammad Qayum said the valley route to the most far-flung U.S. base in the northeast, Forward Operating Base Bostick near the Pakistan border in north Kunar, was the most dangerous.
Bostick, in a natural mountain amphitheatre visited by Reuters in June, is a frequent target for Taliban rockets aimed down at the first battalion of the U.S. 12th Infantry Regiment.
“Last year, two of my trucks were attacked going to Kunar. My nephew was inside and was burned to death,” said Lalajan, nodding agreement with his friend.
This has always left a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to the logistics of this war. These materials being shipped on land are and have always been a prime target of the enemy, and yet you never hear of any concerted effort to actively protect these shipments or to set up fairer contracts that would better protect the rights of these truckers? Why is that?
These truck drivers are risking life and limb to deliver this stuff and at the very least we should be providing some kind of constant over watch with air assets along with some ground units that can help to establish corridors. Anything to protect these guys as they deliver these crucial supplies. (at least on the Afghanistan side)
The other angle that we are missing out on is that if the enemy wants to show themselves in attacks against these supply convoys, then these are perfect opportunities for us to eliminate the exposed enemy using air assets and strategically positioned ground units. We should be striving to make life a living hell for the Taliban out in those mountain passes, and make them pay for attacking convoys.
Also by not protecting these convoys, we are creating Afghans that harbor animosity and anger towards ISAF/NATO. These folks are also in the same position as interpreters or anyone else that has stepped forward to help ISAF/NATO in the war–that they get the label of ‘infidel’ or traitor. I think they deserve better than that. They should get our respect and thanks for their sacrifices and we should do more to meet them half way in their effort to support us.
Hell, if the military doesn’t want to do this, then contract it out. Task a company with protecting over these routes and allow them to operate lethal air assets along with sufficient ground assets. A private company could absolutely create the corridor needed, and the money saved by making this deal with Pakistan to continue ground shipments could be applied to contracting out this type of security effort. And that would include security on the Afghanistan side and Pakistan side of these routes, because the enemy is hitting them on both sides. Either way, something must be done if these supplies are that important? –Matt
Edit: 07/31/2012– Check this quote out. It seems the Taliban are pretty stoked about these shipping routes being opened. They were a prime source of income for their fighters.
“Stopping these supplies caused us real trouble,” a Taliban commander who leads about 60 insurgents in eastern Ghazni province told The Associated Press in an interview. “Earnings dropped down pretty badly. Therefore the rebellion was not as strong as we had planned.”
A second Taliban commander who controls several dozen fighters in southern Kandahar province said the money from security companies was a key source of financing for the insurgency, which uses it to pay fighters and buy weapons, ammunition and other supplies.
“We are able to make money in bundles,” the commander told the AP by telephone. “Therefore, the NATO supply is very important for us.”
44 NATO oil tankers attacked in Pakistan, December 2011.
Afghan truckers a forgotten front in a war growing deadlier by the day
Sun, Jul 29 2012
By Rob Taylor and Hamid Shalizi
In the cabins of their “jingle” trucks flamboyant with tinsel baubles and painted tiger patterns as they move NATO’s war supplies, Habibullah thinks he and other drivers are becoming a forgotten front in an Afghan war growing more vicious.
From a dusty truck park midway between Kabul and the Pakistan border, and under the constant thump of helicopters from Jalalabad airbase over the road, Habibullah moves food and military materiel across the Taliban’s eastern heartland, from Nuristan to the former al Qaeda cave stronghold of Tora Bora.
“We worry about our fate when NATO leaves, because the Taliban also call us the infidels. For them, we are not just the enemy, but also traitors,” said the soft spoken 23-year-old, who contributes seven trucks to a cooperative with five owners.
It is a thankless and increasingly deadly job, and one so mired in graft that the drivers see a fraction of the cash paid by U.S. military paymasters, with the rest skimmed by middlemen or even going into the hands of insurgents for “protection”.
Only this week, three of Habibullah’s trucks were attacked and burned by Taliban amid the rugged mountains of Nuristan, a virtual no-go zone for NATO soldiers after heavy past losses and now garrisoned by a handful of Afghan troops and police.