In 1990 and early 1991, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, American forces had months to prepare for the allied offensive that followed. It was the military's largest logistics effort in decades.
Few enemies are likely to let that happen again.
Gen. Alan Johnson, head of the U.S. Army in Japan. That was a vivid lesson learned from the Gulf War. It takes too long, stuff is tough to track, and you have to have a willing enemy, who will let you stack things up. And although the change will have little effect on the number of U.S. soldiers in Japan, it speaks to the Army's changing expectations for future conflicts. In a major conflict, ground troops count on several stages of supplies.