The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan voted Thursday to evict the United States from Manas Air Base outside the capital Bishkek. The United States will have 180 days to evacuate the facilities and lose its key refueling base to supply forces in Afghanistan.
This pending expulsion of U.S. forces from Manas is a huge humiliation for the United States in Central Asia and marks a sea change in Russia's attitude toward the long-running U.S. and NATO war against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan. It also serves notice that Obama's "surge" policy in Afghanistan is in dire trouble even as he launches it.
cutting off an army's supply lines has marked the death knell of scores of thousands of soldiers or more every time it has happened.
The 50,000 -- soon to be 67,000 -- U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan are still getting their supplies, and Manas should stay open for another six months or so. But once it closes, those supplies will have to come through Pakistani land roads that run through some of the most mountainous terrain in the world, or they will have to be delivered by air in large, potentially vulnerable and easily detectable supply aircraft.
More details as they become available. . . . . . .
