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And as I read this, I realize I forgot about combat engineers--who can be essential in removing mines, filling in trenches, making holes in barbed wire barriers, etc. Add another half dozen trucks for them.

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I'd also want to be flying drones ahead of the convoy to look for obstacles and ambushes

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Mar 13, 2022Liked by Timothy Noah

In ancient times, you could somewhat reduce the need to haul supplies with you or maintain ongoing shipments to the front (which present a juicy target for guerilla resistance), by having your army pillage the stores of whatever farming villages they happened upon. These days even authoritarian regimes generally try to prevent their soldiers from doing that.

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This is literally how Blacks had to travel at one time across America. Note how in the show "Lovecraft Country" the family packs up food for the drive across country, not knowing if they'll find a place that will serve them, and is attacked by cops along the way. And it's why the Green Book came into being, noting where they could eat, sleep, gas up, etc.

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The Russian side, it appears, expected as Bush did for Iraq. That the government would collapse letting them install a subservient one and leave. Perhaps like the Americans, they were relying on expats, telling whatever they wanted to hear?

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This is brilliant, Tom

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This is brilliant, Tom

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It always amazes me how Mighty Superpowers can get tripped up by forgetting such obvious things. They call it "Mother" Russia, but let's be real, that's one mother who's apparently never had to plan a trip with kids even along well-stocked routes. Logistics wins wars.

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You didn't get to the point where your convoy gets so large it overflows the road, so you need to make plans to split up the group and send them along parallel roads, keeping radio or some other contact so you can re-converge if necessary. I am very disappointed!

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Before young men from Nepal pass out as Ghurkas at Catterick they have a choice to make. They can of course choose to join the Royal Ghurka Rifles as a light infantryman. They can also choose to join three other regiments: The Queen's Ghurka Signals, Queen's Ghurka Engineers, or the Queen's Own Ghurka Logistic Regiment.

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