U.S. military plans in case unrest disrupts supply lines to Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) — The military is making backup plans in case the unrest in Pakistan begins to affect the flow of supplies to American troops fighting in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said Wednesday.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the supply lines are “very real areas of concern” because about 75 percent of the supplies, including 40 percent of vehicle fuel supplies, either go through or over Pakistan.

“We hope it doesn’t come to this,” Morrell told reporters. “Right now we’ve seen no indications that any of our supply lines have been impacted.”

The United States has about 25,000 troops in Afghanistan. Some of their supplies arrive by air from Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan. A former supply line from Uzbekistan was shut down in 2005 when the Uzbek government retaliated against Washington for what it viewed as interference in its internal affairs.

Morrell said the U.S. wanted to ensure there was a backup plan should Pakistan’s political turmoil start to affect the supply lines. “Clearly we do not like the situation we find ourselves in right now,” he said.

He did not say what potential alternative routes were under consideration and noted that some people have raised questions about safeguarding Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

“I can tell you, at this point, we have no concerns,” Morrell said. “We believe that they are under the appropriate control.” Later he said that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are a general concern but at this stage there is no worry that the weapons are not under sufficient government control.

Last week the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, offered a different assessment.

“Certainly any time there is a nation that has nuclear weapons that is experiencing a situation such as Pakistan is at present, that is of primary concern,” Ham told reporters. “However, we’ll watch that quite closely, and I think that’s probably all I’d say about that at this point.”