RE: The Longest Supply Lines

["bon moun" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

That ratio develops based on the situation, which the military
determines (naturally) with a formula, METT-T, Mission, Enemy, Terrain &
weather, Troops available, and Time.  It has a nasty habit of siphoning
off combat power and creating its own overpowering internal logic, as
happened in Somalia, where the exclusive activity became protecting
convoys back and forth from Mogadishu Airport to Sword Base.

I've never seen anyone "glued to the road," but I can tell you what the
most important and irreplaceable product on the battlefield is at the
soldier level, and one that can stop operations if it runs out...
potable water.  I've seen whole units sidelined for days by the shits.
US soldiers, for all their firepower and big muscles and gee whiz
technology, have very fragile guts.

Dessalines defeated Napolean's finest by allying himself with the wet
season, when he knew yellow fever would tear through the French ranks
like a deadly storm.

At this level, the battle is between societies, and a perverse reverse
Darwinism asserts itself... foreshadowing the future in many ways I
suspect.  What is the net "entropic load" embodied within one US GI and
one Fedayeen?  These big, bad Marines are connected to a very costly -
in both monetary and eco-social terms - umbilicus.  It leads to us.



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