THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Not politically but the actual physical requirements of removing the Army from Iraq to secure loading points and returning all that shit to the good old US of A. The Army Times has an overview of the larger questions that need to be answered and are being planned for by the military, which unlike Our Dear Embattled Leader plans for everything.

Those “cities” — from al-Asad Air Base in the west, population 17,000, to the Anaconda base farther east, with 25,000 — hold more than the thousands of tanks, other armored vehicles, artillery pieces and Humvees assigned to combat units. They’re also home to airfields laden with high-tech gear, complexes of offices filled with computers, furniture and air conditioners, systems of generators and water plants, PXs full of merchandise, gyms packed with equipment, big prefab latrines and ranks of small portable toilets, even Burger Kings and Subway sandwich shops.

“What stays? What goes? And if it goes, where does it go?” asked Mintzlaff.

When it goes, most will go by sea. But it won’t be a simple matter of tagging, packing and loading.

Ever since U.S. authorities found plague-infected rats in cargo returning from the Vietnam War, the decontamination process has been demanding: water blasting of equipment, treatment with insecticide and rodenticide, inspections, certifications.

“I can’t overemphasize how difficult it is to meet U.S. Agriculture Department standards,” said Pagonis, whose 22nd Support Command supplied, fueled, transported and finally sent home the half-million U.S. troops of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990-91.

Back when it was going in, Rummy screwed around with the tipfiddle and caused some serious problems. Assuming that no one is stupid enough to do that again, it will still be a monumental task. And that leaves the BIG QUESTION unanswered.

But perhaps the biggest question on planners’ minds is a more immediate one: Will it be a “fighting withdrawal”? Will some in Iraq’s wide array of armed groups attack the hundreds of convoys needed to move U.S. equipment south?

But the military has been doing this for a long time and as of today, we still have 548 days to put the plans together. George and his Republicans aren't planning on going anywhere soon.