A rash of insurgent attacks have made Iraq's roads too dangerous for truck

[floda]

Transportation: Putting on the Squeeze
A rash of insurgent attacks have made Iraq's roads too dangerous for truckers to drive, threatening supply lines


NewsweekAug. 23 issue - While insurgents from the Mahdi militia battled U.S. Marines in Najaf, others were waging a much more subtle—and successful—war on Iraq's long and lonely highways. Their targets are mostly unarmed, unprotected truckers; their tactics, robbery, arson and kidnapping. Over the past month the insurgents have brought civilian trucking into central Iraq to a virtual standstill. Three months ago, for example, 1,500 Jordanian trucks plied Highway 10 between Amman and Baghdad every day. Now only 30 a day make the perilous trip.


Abdul Majid Habashneh, head of the Truckers Association of Jordan, calls the situation "a disaster." He says 30 Jordanian drivers have been killed in the past year, and 300 trucks have been either stolen or lost. Only 4 percent of Jordan's fleet of independent trucks (which once totaled 11,500) are now operating. "It's never been this bad, even during the of the war," says Habashneh.

No major route into Iraq is safe. The highways spanning the 600 kilometers from the Turkish border to Baghdad are crawling with saboteurs. The Turkish International Transport Association has declared a total ban on supplying goods to U.S. forces in Iraq. Thirty-three Turkish drivers have been killed, kidnapped or injured over the past 12 months. Turkey's trade with Iraq doubled last year, but it is certain to fall off dramatically with a trucking moratorium. The even longer highways from Kuwait, usually much more heavily guarded by U.S. troops, have also seen a spate of kidnappings and robberies. Around Baghdad, truck stops are deserted.

Despite the mayhem, Iraqi and U.S. military officials insist the insurgents' campaign isn't hurting the war effort. "Critical supplies such as food, fuel, spare parts and ammunition will continue to be delivered on time and where needed," says Maj. Richard Spiegel , a spokesman for the Coalition's convoy operations. True, military convoys aren't being attacked for the most part. But many less vital Coalition supplies come in civilian trucks. Muhammed Suleiman Saley, a Jordanian, was carrying ice cream and meat to U.S. bases in Tikrit a month ago when he and his truck disappeared without a trace. When another Jordanian driver, Nawaf Isaf Hussein, took the same route, he carried a false manifest for his cargo of uniforms, hoping it would ensure safe passage. But bandits had already been tipped off. They shot out the wheels of his truck and burned his cargo. "Be glad that you're alive and go back to your family," he says they told him. Even though the U.S. Army now pays as much as $2,500 per trip to a Jordanian driver, four times the normal rate, Hussein doesn't plan to return.

more...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5709443/site/newsweek/

[skooooo]

1. 15 or so months into this operation..

....and we're being reassured that critical supplies are reaching their points?

I don't like how this is going, and I've got a bad feeling about it.

[acmavm]

2. Yep, it's not a good thing. Cut the supply lines, an old and reliable

tactic.

Just think about it. We have to have EVERYTHING shipped in from Kuwait and other countries. Everything from water to sand (remember that story?)

The bright picture being painted by the Iraqi government (?) and the bush* administration is based on smoke and mirrors.

[shanti]

3. but halliburton will ream us

anyway...they've been doing it all along and have no intention of getting off the gravy train. :grr:

[Junkdrawer]

4. Will Pitt reported on what they are trucking (oil)...

...
As for the corporate takeover of the Iraqi oil industry, that has become the prime mission of the American soldiers engaged there. Kellogg Brown & Root also does a tidy business in the oil-infrastructure repair market. "The troops aren't hunting terrorists or building a country," said the Reuters photographer. "All they do is guard the convoys running north and south. The convoys north are carrying supplies and empty tankers for the oil fields around Mosul and Tikrit. The convoys south bring back what they pull out of the ground up there. That's where all these kids are getting killed. They get hit with IEDs while guarding these convoys, and all hell breaks loose."
...
The soldiers over there are hip to the jive at this point. Michael Hoffman, a Marine corporal in artillery, was part of the original March invasion. Before Hoffman's unit shipped out, his battery first sergeant addressed all the enlisted men. "Don't think you're going to be heroes," said Hoffman's sergeant. "You're not going over there because of weapons of mass destruction. You're not going there to get rid of Saddam Hussein, or to make Iraq safe for democracy. You're going there for one reason and one reason alone: Oil."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/080904A.shtml

[grasswire]

5. Will, are you listening?

The correct phrase is "hep to the jive" not "hip" ---- just FYI.

[WMliberal]

6. it's all those damned palm branches and flower petals isn't it? n/t

[goclark]

7. Aren't they happy now?

All is well and the slaves are all happy there now - NOT!

How can you feel safe when you can't even drive down the street!?

I've really had it today.