This...
Suspected militants blew up a bridge in northwestern Pakistan's Khyber Pass on Tuesday, cutting the main route for supplies bound for Western forces in Afghanistan, a government official said.
...is severely complicated by this...
Stunning news from Moscow: Russian news agencies are reporting that the government of Kyrgyzstan will close Manas Air Base, a vital conduit for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
RIA-Novosti quotes Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev as saying that his government "has made the decision to end the term for the American base on the territory of Kyrgyzstan." (The RIA-Novosti news report, which followed a press conference in Moscow, has not been translated into English; the Associated Press has a summary.)
If true, it would be a major setback for U.S. operations.
Here's the issue; the Khyber Pass supply route (through Pakistan) is vulnerable to insurgent attack, and the political situation in Pakistan makes it difficult to provide a more robust defense. As such, the United States has been seeking an alternative supply route. Disputes with Uzbekistan limited this alternative, and the Kyrgyz decision will further complicate the issue. It goes without saying that deploying additional forces to Afghanistan will require robust lines of supply, and therefore that maintaining the integrity of these lines will be critical to President Obama's Afghanistan strategy.
...this might have been relevant for the Kyrgyz decision:
Interfax and RIA-Novosti quoted Kurmanbek Bakiyev as making the statement just minutes after Russia announced it was providing the poor ex-Soviet country with billions of dollars in aid.
The United States has been paying considerable rent to use the airbase in question. The U.S. had hoped for Russian assistance on the Afghanistan supply route question; Russia has, since 2001, been relatively cooperative with regard to Afghanistan. It's an odd time for Russia to start throwing around billions of dollars to compete with the U.S., as Russian economic and foreign exchange problems are severe.
--Robert Farley
