Burning Question: What's tougher than moving elephants across the Alps?

In an effort to draw down forces in Iraq and simultaneously build up the American military presence in Afghanistan, the Army is packing up and moving billions of dollars worth of equipment from one country to the other. It is, the New York Times reports, an almost unprecedented logistical challenge.

In some cases, all of the material needed for a forward operating base is being packed into a "fob in a box" and shipped 2,300 miles through Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan into northern Afghanistan. The circuitous route avoids travel through Iran.

"Hannibal trying to move over the Alps had a tremendous logistics burden, but it was nothing like the complexity we are dealing with now," Lt. Gen. William G. Webster, the commander of the United States Third Army, told the Times.

That complexity involves more than just equipment moving into Afghanistan. In March, the Defense Logistics Agency shipped 1.1 million frozen hamburger patties to the country.

When Military Moves a War, There Are No Shortcuts
(New York Times)

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