Army Study of Iraq War Details a 'Morass' of Supply Shortages

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 — 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.

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http://nytimes.com/2004/02/03/politics/03ARMY.html?hp

Artillery units cannibalized parts from captured Iraqi guns to keep their howitzers operating.

Since when do Iraqis have the same type of artillery as the US...?
:eyes:

to them under ray-gun

in a hurry before Saddam had a chance to shower his WMD on the USA.

ain't outsourcing grand.

conservative idea. They always seem to forget to factor in their greed component!

"Army medics foraged medical supplies from combat hospitals."?

Sounds like looting to me. Looting of worst kind. i think with the amount of collateral damage at the time and amount of wounded Iraqis, those supplies might have been used differently.

hospitals or enemy combatabt hospitals, they are hitting up their own US/Allied Combat Surgical Hospitals/Evac hospitals....Stop the bleeding and maintain the airway and call in the medevac bird and get the guys/gals to a forward surgical unit and the wounded trooper has a much better chance at survival. But that medic on the front line has to have the stuff to plug up "Jody" so he/she can get to the rear for better medical care. My first 3 year enlistment was as a medic and I'd have done the same for the guys in my platoon.

No doubt our troops looted civilian hospitals as well. If the situation was bad as they describe, then there is no doubt.

when you go to war unprepared.the rush to war was a total military blunder. if the Iraq`s had put up a decent defense we would have lost hundreds of troops in the first week. the "drive to Baghdad" was a huge error even if it did work. there is alot of lessons that will be learned because of this war.

does anybody with an ounce of common sense want to see the Army fight someonewho's actually more willing to fight to the finish--llike Syria, Iran, NK? Hell no :nuke:


Rummy had better shred those Syria ideas real quick--you don't need the latest hi tech toys to make the US Army look bad anymore--Unca Dick's Halliburton friends has done that already :grr:

When we were within two weeks of being stopped dead in our tracks by a third-world nation with a third-world dictator that had been under sanctions for over a decade? Heaven forbid we ever have to take on an enemy that actually poses a risk to our country's safety. Our military is falling apart and now they're beating the drums of war to go into Iran or Syria? They're fucking nuts! Our overreliance on highly advanced but often largely untested technology, instead of large numbers of trained, competent troops and simple, reliable weapons systems, is going to be the undoing of our military, I fear. All the stealth bombers and cruise missiles in the world aren't helping us maintain control on the ground in Iraq.

Or just the most expensive?

Isn't that the most important issue on the table now?

....keep flapping their lips about how they'll give the troops the finest and the best yadda yadda yadda.

It's time for mothers and wives to march outside the White House. They're looting the Treasury and putting generations in debt to line their pockets.

As in "the massive dysfunction in the delivery of supplies was due to privatization of Army supplies and the inability to convince civilians working for the private corporation to lay their life on the line for our soldiers."

I'm just wondering.

artillery, but small things too. My desert boots fell apart 3 weeks into Afghanistan back in '02. Took a month for the supply channels to catch up and get me a new pair that survived. Thanks goodness for 100mph tape! That's what I used to hold them together until a new pair could be supplied.

way to go soldier. are you still in? i got off active and now i'm texas national guard.
ssg armstrong

"The study does note, however, that the strategy of starting the war before all support troops were in place, in order to achieve an element of surprise, taxed the postwar resources of local commanders, who in many cases were shifting back and forth between combat operations and the task of restoring civil services."

In other words, *Hey, I've got a brilliant strategy! Let's go into battle unprepared! That'll really take them by surprise!*

Yeah, sure.