DIFFICULT LOGISTICS OF WITHDRAWAL

"... the biggest logistical challenge since the Vietnam War... how to transfer out... mountains of equipment along with 143,000 troops and a similar number of civilians, amid the continuing threat of roadside bombs, ambushes, and suicide attacks from insurgents and terrorists... A recent internal Army report laid out the sheer enormity of the task: 31 million items must be moved, including 100,000 pieces of "rolling stock,'' 120,000 containers, 34,000 tons of ammunition, and 618 aircraft. The job will require an estimated 240,000 truckloads, which translates to 8,000 convoys. Much of that material will contribute to 119 shiploads. Nearly 300,000 American personnel, military and civilian, will withdraw, and 350 bases large and small across the country will be shuttered or handed over to Iraqi forces... (a) major task will be to keep track of everything in transit - a notorious failure after the 1991 Persian Gulf War when the Pentagon had thousands of containers sitting in Kuwait but had no idea what was in them."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/28-6

DECLINE OF IRAQ AGRICULTURE

"Once world's bread basket, Iraq now a farming basket case... the twin disasters of war and sanctions... have transformed the country from one of the world's premier sources of aromatic rice and nearly 500 kinds of dates 30 years ago into a net importer of food..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/72051.html