War is Hell…

Take this with a grain of salt:

The first official Army history of the Iraq war reveals that American forces were plagued by a “morass” of supply shortages, radios that could not reach far-flung troops, disappointing psychological operations and virtually no reliable intelligence on how Saddam Hussein would defend Baghdad.

Logistics problems, which senior Army officials played down at the time, were much worse than have previously been reported. While the study serves mainly as a technical examination of how the Army performed and the problems it faced, it could also serve as a political document that could advance the Army’s interests within the Pentagon.

Tank engines sat on warehouse shelves in Kuwait with no truck drivers to take them north. Broken-down trucks were scavenged for usable parts. Artillery units cannibalized parts from captured Iraqi guns to keep their howitzers operating. Army medics foraged medical supplies from combat hospitals.

In most cases, soldiers improvised solutions to keep the offensive rolling. But the study found that the Third Infantry Division, the Army’s lead combat force, was within two weeks of being halted by a lack of spare parts, and Army logisticians had no effective distribution system.

No commander ever has enough resources to make them happy, and I would suggest that two weeks away from an operational pause in an advance is nothing from a historical perspective. Still, I can’t wait to read this.