Excellent article on Afghanistan

[Marcello]

Originally Posted by Snipey

In the Leningrad Case I was referring to the Road of Life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_of_Life If the Red Army could have done that, over treacherous ice, under severe Nazi bombardment, than why are you telling me that they couldn't do the same for Kabul? Mass starvation took place in Leningrad, before the Road of Life was built, not afterwards. Preventing further mass starvation was the whole point of the Road of Life, and the plan succeeded.

I was perfectly aware of the "Road of Life".
What you don't seem aware of is a few details that the Wikipedia article gloss over but I (wrongly) assumed would be common knowledge, at least in general terms.
Leningrad needed an absolute minimum of a thousands of tons of supplies per day. A month after the opening of the road the tonnage delivered was still only 700-800 tons per day.
About 120.000 people starved to death only during January 1942, two months after the opening of the road. Another 130.000 or so died on February. Eventually enough people died or were evacuated and the improved supply system could cope.
"not afterwards" indeed

Source: The siege of Leningrad, 1941-1944 by David M. Glantz
Or if you really like Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_...ad_on_the_city

January–February: The deadliest months of the siege: every month 130,000 civilians are found dead in Leningrad and suburbs

More on the rest later.