Was it Napolean or Alexander the Great who said an army travels on it’s belly? Doesn't matter. It's true. Hitler’s generals warned him against getting America and it’s logistical might into the fight. Churchill agreed, tellimg his generals that it was essential. In the end, America’s industrial might and our ability get it into action made victory inevitable.
Today every general, every military tactician, accepts this as gospel. What most people dont know is that every military “exercise”, every “war game” is mainly an exercise in logistics. How fast can you get your troops to the theatre of battle? How fast can you resupply? How fast can you bring in fresh troops, munitions, supplies? The bigger the conflict, the bigger the logistical challenge. Militaries love practicing this stuff.
The disaster in Puerto Rico presents the American military with an incredible opportunit. Not only can they test how good they are at moving shit around, they can also save American lives. Good practice. Good pr. Real good all around.
We hear today that the current biggest obstial to Puerto Rican relief is getting containers off the docks, onto trucks, and into communities. There are generals in the Logistics Commands who would love to know how long it would take to get, say, 75% of all the qualified truck drivers in the Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy into a particular theatre. How long would it actually take to get enough trucks a into that theatre? Enough fuel. Enough support staff and materiel.
Disregarding every humanitarian purpose that rapidly deploying the military to help in Puerto Rico would serve, just testing our biggest-in-the-world military against such a logistical challenge would be super useful if we are planning to win multiple conflicts in multiple theaters, as current doctrine promises.
Sadly, maddeningly, our draft-dodger-in-chief has missed out on the opportunity to do good for both Americans fighting for their lives in Puerto Rico, and American soldiers fighting for their lives in future military conflicts.
The Officer Corps of the U.S. Military is taking notice. And at the grunt level, the troops who would drive the trucks, husbands, wives, moms, dads, folks who know they could help and want to-are pissed.