[Marxism] Weakened US grip on Iraq roads, supply lines

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-

[Some details about the Coalition's decreasing control of
roads and supply lines in Iraq, and the resulting logistical problems
that are affecting U.S. forces in the field. Charles Heyman, a senior
analyst at Jane's Consulting Group,
said:  "It looks like the opposition has gotten its act together."
--Mark Jensen]

http://www.ufppc.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=447&Itemid=2

ROAD PERILS IN IRAQ ADD TO CHAOS, SHORTAGES
By Nicholas Riccardi and Edmund Sanders

Los Angeles Times
April 20, 2004

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-roads20apr20,1,37255
41.story?coll=la-headlines-world

BAGHDAD -- At a sprawling desert camp in southern Iraq, U.S. soldiers
sleep in trucks and Humvees because Iraqi merchants are afraid to
deliver tents to them.

On a key road through the Sunni Triangle, masked men with Kalashnikov
assault rifles occupy the concrete-block checkpoints the U.S. military
once used.

And at Baghdad's airport, goods are piling up because Iraqi truckers
refuse to brave the main highway to the capital or transport the
material to other U.S. bases.

In Baghdad's central market, Iraqi shippers and merchants
fret that business is drying up.

Of all the sudden changes in Iraq during the last month, control of the
roads is among the most striking.  The U.S.-led coalition has been
unable to hold on to all of its supply and communication lines on vital
routes leading from the capital.  Insurgents have blown up key bridges,
rocketed fuel convoys and seized hostages.  Though there are no serious
shortages, the perilous state of Iraq's roads adds to a sense of chaos
in much of the country.

Over the weekend, the military announced it would close two
of the country's biggest arteries to civilian traffic in an effort to
get the fighting under control, cutting into Iraqi commercial life and
raising fears of an economic slowdown.

"It's a good measure of how the coalition is doing when you
can get in a car and drive to the Jordanian border and down
to Najaf without worrying about it," said Charles Heyman, a senior
analyst at Jane's Consulting Group, citing two of the routes that are
occasionally under insurgent control.  The fact that one cannot take
those roads, he said, "is not a good sign."

American military officials acknowledge that there have been some supply
shortages as a result of stepped-up insurgent activity on the routes.
They are flying in more material from Kuwait and altering convoy routes
and schedules.  But they say there are no widespread shortages, and they
vow to retake the roads.

"In some cases we have had to change the way we do business, but the
bottom line is that critical supplies -- food, water, fuel, ammunition,
spare parts -- are getting to the people that need them," said Maj.
Richard Spiegel of the 13th Corps Support Command, which is in charge of
logistics in Iraq.  "Example:  Are some mess halls serving less variety
of food?  Yes, they are . but there is still plenty of fresh food."

Still, Heyman said, insurgents only need to dent the supply lines to
have a serious impact on the military's ability to maneuver.

"It looks like the opposition has gotten its act together,"
he said.  "It is reducing the ability of the coalition to operate where
they want to."

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, riding Iraq's roads has
been risky business.  U.S. military convoys have been
targets for ambushes, and armed bandits have cruised the highways.

At many times of day and in many places, Iraq's roads appear relatively
normal.  Beat-up cars and rickety trucks loaded with goods rattle across
the country.  Military convoys hum through unimpeded.

But for Majid Hussein Kadhum, who owns a major bus and
trucking company in Baghdad, the mundane appearance belies a new
volatility.

His drivers used to know which stretches of highway held
which perils -- roadside bombs, twitchy American convoys and robbers.

"Now, every day things change," Kadhum said.  "You don't
know what you'll face in the next kilometer."

The changes began two weeks ago near the city of Fallouja. Since then,
heavy fighting between insurgents and Marines have demonstrated the new
and quickly shifting dynamic on Iraq's roads.

Marines moved into Fallouja on April 5 after four U.S.
civilian contractors were killed there and their bodies mutilated.  They
closed a section of the highway from Baghdad that runs through the city
and on to the Jordanian border.

Insurgents responded by seizing a secondary route that parallels the
highway.

Masked gunmen occupied former U.S. military checkpoints
along the route and began roving other back roads.  Several Westerners
who crossed the area to or from Jordan have been detained or killed.

Most Iraqi companies that transport passengers to and from Jordan will
no longer make the trip with Westerners, and are even wary about taking
Iraqis.

Last week, Ayad Abdul Kareem was driving four Iraqis from Jordan to
Baghdad when he stumbled onto an insurgent checkpoint.  The guards
demanded the passengers' passports. When the insurgents saw they were
Iraqis, they were not satisfied.  The gunmen focused on a fair-haired
passenger and asked him if he really was Iraqi.

The man replied that he was from a prominent tribe in the northern city
of Mosul, home to many lighter-skinned Iraqis.  The gunmen then quizzed
him on prominent tribes in other areas before allowing the car through.

"I worry about going back there," Abdul Kareem said.

Insurgents also staged ambushes on the main highway to
Baghdad, rolling rocks across the road to set up impromptu checkpoints,
and regularly attacked convoys.

On April 9, the attackers destroyed a fuel convoy and took hostage an
American employee of Halliburton subsidiary KBR, formerly Kellogg, Brown
& Root.  KBR, which supplies coalition bases here, announced it was
suspending some deliveries in Iraq.  It has since announced that it has
resumed shipments.

Insurgents also briefly held eight truckers from Turkey,
India and Pakistan before releasing them on condition they never drive
for the Americans again.

Next was the airport highway.

Baghdad's international airport is perched on the western
edge of Baghdad, near the Fallouja road.  The airport road
has long been the site of ambushes of U.S. convoys, but insurgents last
week increased the number of assaults on trucks and convoys, and began
handing out leaflets in the neighborhood warning of even more attacks.

That was enough for Qassim Kadhum.  Until Saturday, the 43-year-old
trucker had continued to pick up goods at the airport.  But after
passing several burned-out cars that day, he said he understood why
crates were piling up at the terminals.  Kadhum decided he would join
other Iraqis who had stopped hauling supplies from the airport.

"We are worried we'll be targets," he said.  "We are not
only worried about our safety, but the future of our
families."

The insurgents also struck on a key road heading south.

That highway, from Baghdad to the Shiite part of the
country, had been relatively calm.  But a militia loyal to
an anti-American cleric launched a series of assaults across the region
two weeks ago.  When 2,500 American troops swung south from Baghdad to
confront the militia, it responded with ambushes that left at least one
soldier dead and destroyed bridges over Iraq's wide rivers.

The new troops arrived to Forward Operating Base Duke, an
empty swath of desert outside the holy city of Najaf, to
find a logistical nightmare.

Military buyers had signed contracts with local vendors to supply
everything from water to portable tents.  But the contractors were
balking at delivering the goods.

"When the security situation gets bad, they don't want to deliver, and
that's what's happening now,'" said Army Capt. Ron Talarico, who is
helping coordinate supplies.

A temporary water shortage was remedied, but the camp still
has only six portable toilets for the 2,500 troops because
the company that provides them is reluctant to travel the highway.

There are no showers or laundry facilities.  A shortage of tents forces
soldiers to sleep in their vehicles in 100-degree weather and blistering
sandstorms.

"It's a wasteland here," said 1st Lt. Matt Nethers, 24, of
Los Alamitos.  "The Army logistical system isn't what it
could be."

The military dispatched its Stryker Brigade, including 80
state-of-the-art combat vehicles, to try to secure the main roads and
watch over KBR's convoys.  Other U.S. forces unsuccessfully tried to
dislodge militia members from bridges and traffic circles in the key
city of Kufa.

Finally, on Saturday, military officials announced they
would close the highway running from near Najaf past Baghdad and to the
city of Balad to restore order on the roads.

On Monday, they said the closures would be irregular,
depending on military and repair needs.

The changes were slowly seeping into Baghdad's commercial
world Monday.

"I used to go to the south at least three times a week, but
now I'm jobless because of the situation there," said
trucker Hussain Abed Ali, 32.

Sahib Ahmed Shemiryi, the owner of Al Fajeer Transportation
in Baghdad's central market, said that his clients had been beseeching
him to pick up their wares, but that he dared not send his trucks.

Saad Mohammed Khalid was less worried.  The 30-year-old gas station
owner has a month's worth of fuel in underground tanks, just in case
tankers are blocked from the capital.

But Khalid predicted that the road disruptions would have a profound
effect on a country that is increasingly disenchanted with the
coalition.

"Workers cannot move from one place to another, nor can
goods," Khalid said.  "This will have a big impact on
Iraqis' lives.  They will get very upset, very angry."

--Riccardi reported from Baghdad and Sanders from near Kufa. Times staff
writer Tony Perry in Fallouja, and Suheil Ahmed and Ammar Mohammed
Fadhil of The Times' Baghdad Bureau, contributed to this report.




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