Afghanistan is a box canyon

Afghanistan is a landlocked nation. No access by sea. Other nations, with interests often competing with our own, can control access to Afghanistan's borders.

Long before I started this blog, I warned that Afghanistan was the equivalent of a box canyon in Old West yarns:  A place where our enemies could cut off resupply, bottle up our troops and choke our war effort. At the very least, operations could be significantly hampered.

My fear may be becoming reality. STRATFOR, a private subscription-based intelligence service, had a warning this morning:

Days after the Pakistanis closed their borders to the passage of fuel and supplies for the NATO-led war effort in Afghanistan, for very different reasons the Russians threatened to close the alternative Russia-controlled Northern Distribution Network (NDN). The dual threats are significant even if they don’t materialize. If both routes are cut, supplying Western forces operating in Afghanistan becomes impossible.

STRATFOR's full assessment, Pakistan, Russia and the Threat to the Afghan War is available for your review.