Military shuts down fast food in Afghanistan - "It's not an amusement park"
 

From here

Now knowing how badly suppliers rip off the military, for all I know the Pentagon's cost for a Whopper could be the same as a rocket launcher, but even so this seems sort of tough.

I guess you don't get to be Sgt. Major without learning how to tell the difference between a war zone and an amusement park.

I think troops who are in the fight each day might like to know they can get a slice of pizza when they get off the front lines. I can only assume that they know that they're in a war zone. After 8+ years in Afghanistan, are our supply lines so fragile that we can't ship pizza and mortar rounds at the same time?

Not an amusement park? How are we going to break the news to Big Sarge?

That's Command Sgt. Major, and he knows better than anyone the supply lines fragility. The air traffic at Bagram and Kandahar is horrific, and he wants the supply lines, to the guys actually doing the fighting, not to be compromised supplying nonessentials to the guys that are at those bases as support.

There are no front lines, the people fighting are scattered at outposts where they are in constant combat with the enemy. They are stuck there until their unit is rotated out, or they are flown out on a litter. Either way, when they past through Bagram or Kandahar, pizza is the last thing on their minds.

The Command Sgt. Major is obviously more concerned for the safety and welfare of the fighting units than the off duty pleasure of the support personnel at the relatively safe supply bases.

I would suggest that you follow Mike Yon's descriptions of how this war is playing out.

So after 8 years we have not built up the infrastructure to support our supply chain? That is kind of scary.

Don't the line units get rotated back to the bases?

Is there any "suplly line" difference between providing a slice of pizza to a soldier in TGIF, or in the mess hall?

Who is working at these restaurants?

probably Halliburton contract workers, or similar.

I hope they wear their flair!
http://twocrabs.blogs.com/2crabs/ima...vie_wait_1.jpg

really?!?!?!? I wouldn't have expected that type of employee from them.

Could you imagine Big Sarge wearing flair?:D

What are you talking about? Everything Big Sarge does has flair.

No, we were distracted by Iraq, remember. When we got back to the real problem, Afghanistan, there was even less supply chain. Russia pressured, and bribed, it's former USSR states not to let us use airspace, and the only land line through Pakistan has become unreliable by stepped up Taliban attacks on both sides of the border.
Don't forget there are a hell of a lot more troops to supply now, and they are using a lot more materiel with the increase in fighting.

As I understand it, the fighting units may sometimes change outposts as the campaign dictates, but they are in the thick of it for the duration of their tour, then rotated home as a unit. I haven't read anything about R&R during their tours.

Counter-insurgent warfare is up close and personal, the units work like sports teams. They have to trust and depend on each other, and you just can't rotate unknown people in and out. They are stretched pretty thin, in most cases, anyway. The current "surge" is manning more outposts, but they are still small units.

Bagram and Kandahar are support and command bases, operating full capacity air traffic, both military and commercial, 24/7.

So when all of you armchair quarterbacks were there what did you think?

My cousin who just got home from there had a couple of weeks off during his tour. He didn't think it was a picnic being at the base regardless of the fast food joints around, and he much preferred getting care packages from us here at home than going to burger king or any of the others.

I didn't ask him, but I don't think he cared if there was junk food available or not. He was there to do a job and just wanted it done as quickly and safely as possible.

And then to get home in one bit. Good on him. Glad he is OK.

Arm chair. That's it.... I kept thinking monday morning but knew it wasn't quite right. Thx.

The only bit I know about military logistics is from reading Pagonis's book. As a general rule, in any supply chain there is a certain amount of elasticity. In theory, there should be excess capacity which is occupied by luxuries, say 20 pallets of frozen pizza dough. In an emergency, those 20 pallets can be replaced by an AFV or tank.

If I understand this correctly, then the either capacity to move necessary supplies has shrunk, the amount of necessary supplies has risen, or the amount of unnecessary supplies has risen.

Option C means that the excess capacity is still there if needed. Options A or B mean that operations have expanded or capacity has shrunk.

It really sucks that in all the money that got sucked into Iraq, building literally crappy buildings, not to mention a 'super embassy' compound that we are probably going to be forced to abandon in the near future, noone could find a spare 100 million to upgrade two airports in Afghanistan.

My experience has been that there was but one company that was pre-positioned to provide service to deployed troops, and I was the receipent of those services, Haliburton. Love them or hate them, they were the only company who over the 50 years learned to pre-position themselves to provide the services that we needed. Were they always good? no. Where they always there? yes. The whole smoke and mirrors bullshit arguement that there were "no bid" contracts was a weak arguement put forward by those who failed to get in the game early. Were the buildings crapy? sure, but the beat laying in the sand. Did all the generators work all the time? nope, but there were people there to fix them. Did the food suck? Nope, because we ate pretty damm well.

Screw the armchair quarterbacks.

Ask folks in the inner city or those, particularly minorities. who feel disenfranchised and they will say the same thing about ACORN.

For forty years they pre-positioned themselves to be there for the underserved community. The whole smoke and mirrors bullshit argument that they had an institutional plan to commit voter fraud was a weak argument by those who did not want to see increased voter participation in the minority communities.l

Were they always good? no Did the minority community get assistance with housing, credit and finance issues, voter registration. You bet they did.

And they never sexually molested (or allegedly gang raped) a co-worker or knowingly endangered the lives of others and committed negligent homicide from faulty wiring in showers.

Screw you, hypocrite.

Fuck off you idiot. Don't try to redirect the subject. This is not a discussion of the tit suckers...

Fuck those ACORN law breakers. They were the ones who were committing voter fraud, and they got caught now didn't they? The whole race card has been over played by your Demoncratic Party scumbags.... See you in Nov. :D

Cant take the heat? Too fucking bad.

You might think gang rape and negligent homicide is no big deal. Not me, dude.

Tit sucking? How about grossly overcharging on govt contracts to the tune of $hundred of millions?

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

Your party is fucked.... and I love it.

Ok, if it was Nancy give me a call, I could sell your video to the internet....

Smile, dude.

You've been exposed again for the hypocritical bullshiter you are.

I have never varied from my position you Demoncratic Shrill...

You have been repeatedly exposed.

Your party is fucked in the Nov....

I get it, dude.

You dont care about gang rape, negligent homicide, $millions in overcharges by Haliburton.

Its all about fuck ACORN and fuck the Democrats?

Very classy, dude.

Gang rape? So you can prove that this was the responibility of a corp and not of a few individuals? Cool, I am sure that those involved would love your help!

But no, you really have nothing to add scumbag. You are trailing on the teathers of a news report....

The courts will sort out the bad people, as they should. Let the system work. But no, you have to stick your asshole on the post of Demoncratic and White House Talking Points spokesperson on this forum, you fail........

Fuck you and your party of Demoncats...

Same could be said about ACORN...a few bad people.....let the systew work....the courts will sort out the bad people as it should.

But no...not good enough for you....hypocrite.

You can dish out but you cant take it and your double standards have been exposed once again.

I made my point.

:lol2:

Fuck you. Only your party will have to answer to the higher Health Care fees, the taxes, the failure on your parties part to control costs, you are fucked come Nov..... :D And I love it. The electorate has taken notice. Fall on your sword asshole, take a video and post it for us to watch....

ACORN!?!! Holy crap... you are going to hold this group of scumbags up as an example of your Demoncratic morals? You have got to be kidding me... You own them, you got them, they are yours, enjoy. They will forever be associated with the Demoncratic party...

I can take anything you put out fuck.... :lol2:

I've chewed you up and spit you out too many times to count.

Or perhaps you can explain to everyone why Haliburton should not be held to the same standards as ACORN? Your best comeback is the Dems will be screwed in Nov?

Til the next time. I'll be watching you, dude. :D

Whiney little bitch. Just like Pelosi..:D

More of the same. Have your shot your load now?

So you still cant explain why you or anyone should not hold Haliburton to the same standard as ACORN.

Humm. I thought , never mind

Forget it, this is a whole new ballgame, we've never fought a war like this. Trying supply units fighting an insurgency in isolated areas, with little or no usable infrastructure, one precarious land line, trying to maintain a shaky coalition, and get every seriously wounded soldier to Germany as quickly as possible, creates a tremendous logistics nightmare. Virtually everything that moves, moves by air.

And that is the bottom line of my points. Did H. Fuck Up? sure? did they over charge? Sure. Did the system allow them to do it in the way it was structured and were they prepositioned to take advantage of it? Sure. But, in the end, did they provide the service that allowed us to get the job done? Fucking eh. I am not here to make excuses for that corp, whom I believed ripped off the US Gov billions of dollars, but you know what? No one else was there to do what they did, provided the service that they did, in a timely fashion that they did.

Haliburton supported the troops, ACORN motherfuckers supported tit suckers...

And they were both fucking the taxpayers.

I get it.

Supporting and serving minority communities is just not patriotic in your world.

Becareful, you might choke on that.

I never stated anything about patriotism.... those are your words.

Maybe. But which one was getting huge funding from the government to do their job, and which one was getting huge funding from the government in the form of a contractural relationship and payment? Haliburton had a more than 50 year relationship with the US Gov, ACORN was a progressive get out the vote get Obama elected organization.

BTW, saw parts of the unedited video released by the CA attorney general. I also read where the guy who was supposedly helping them smuggle in girls was instead getting information from them and called the cops when they left.

Little pieces that didn't make it into the final cut because telling the truth wasn't as important as telling a self-serving story.

Right..and Haliburton's contract irregularities and overcharges in the last seven years alone add up to far more taxpayer dollars than ACORN has received in total in 25+ years.

The sad irony here is that the US has sacrificed thousands of lives at a cost of nearly $1 trillion, including $billions to Haliburton to give Iraqis more rights under their new constitution than many of our citizens have under our Constitution....a guaranteed right to work and join a union and receive a livable wage, the right to health care. the right to a place to live.......all those things that ACORN has fought for in 25+ years ...for the tit suckers, as you ignorantly characterize them.

I say hammer them, get the money back. But don't pretend that any other company could have provided the support that they provided. They made the whole thing happen and many of their people got killed, with none of the insurance that our troops got. That is a bigger issue to me. The few highlighted issues which you have brought up, do not diminish the support they provided. I say attack those failings on a specific case by case basis and let the chips fall where they may. I have no problem with that.

ACORN and the Demoncats are whores who support the current Congess of Whores.

I get it again.

Spending $1 trillion, including $billions in overcharges to Haliburton to give guaranteed rights to Iraqis....good!

Spending a comparable amount to provide similar rights to US (tit suckers) citizens...whoreish!

You really can't be as big of a stupid idiot like that bitch Pelosi...

I said if they owe it, go get if from them.

I also said that no other company was poised to support us like they did, for whatever reason, and I think we both know what that was...

Right. I get it that the name calling allows you to ignore the facts because of your blind hatred for one community group and one party that might care just a bit more than you about those "tit suckers" as you call them.

And you cant see the comparisons and the larger irony?

Who's the idiot here?

But yet your Demoncratic party is willing to spend Trillions of dollars on a failed program of Obamacare that will not fix the healthcare issues of our country, will raise premiums on millions of individuals, will mandate for the first time a federal requirement for people to purchase private commodities from private companies, sending them trillions in profit, bankrupt our grandchildren’s future, without ever fixing the problems in our healthcare system, and you have no problem with that... :lol2:

I forgot that you can predict the future better than anyone here...but you're not biased or partisan.

So I guess you are Ok with American forces fighting. and expending $1 trillion in tax payer money to date (not a prediction..a fact) to give foreigners more rights than some of our own citizens enjoy.

STFU

That one little tit sucker group is so very minor..... It is not blind hatred, it is obvious fact. That corrupt organization has failed. Otherwise they would be thriving. Are they? No, the slimes have changed their name and split up into other names to avoid association with the failed organization. If you would do a little research into the leadership you would find how badly they failed. NPR did a great expose on them....

But then again, it would require you to abandon your Demoncratic Brainwashing to appreciate it...

The only thing I give foreigners the right to do is to die for their country before our troops die for their country....

You can characterize it any way you want, but the fact remains that we have lost thousand of American lives (including a very very small minority due to Haliburton negligence) and spent more unbudgeted money to the tune of at least $1 trillion to give Iraqis more rights than many of our own citizens have.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

You want to talk about unbudgeted mandates in the face of the new Obamacare Bill?!?!??!?

You know, I could give a shit about the Iraqi's. I hope it works out for them. I still think that partition is the answer.

But that is water under the bridge. You are like the idiot wife who says, "hey, just charge it to the credit card". Fail....

Stop blaming Bush for your parties failures.

You got the whole thing.

It is all of yours. Deal with it. The electorate has taken notice.

Where are the millions of "shovel ready jobs" your party promised????

Its been fun exposing your double standards once again.

I'll be here and watching you....and you can stick to what you do best...the same old name calling and unique biased ability to see into the future. ;)

And I will be here to expose you as a mouth piece for the Demoncrats and Obama.... Have a great tax filled future...

So where are the jobs your party promised us?

My investments are back up to where they were just over a year ago when Obama took office and looking better than they have in two years. BTW, they are mostly "green" and "socially responsible" stocks and funds. Oh, and I received a nice bonus earlier this year. More money = more taxes...thats cool.

And I hired a new assistant last week. :)

People out of work do not have an interest in your ability to make money while the rest of them are suffering... Fail.

Again. What a total dick you are...