That is great news! Then the US wouldn't really need Pakistan's help. Shore up the Afghan border with Pakistan, get ANA to man the positions with backing from the US air power and ISR assets and there is a very good solution for any cross-border movement. What is the problem?
- The most optimal route was to ship supplies to Pakistan from where it is delivered to Afghanistan by land by one of two routes {(South Pakistan) Karachi to Kandahar via Chaman -1110 kilometers with the capacity of 75-100 containers per day. It takes 5-7 days in Pakistan and 12 days till Kandahar on this route OR (North Pakistan) Karachi to Kabul - vis Peshawar & the Khyber Pass -1948 kilometers long with the capacity of 100-125 containers per day. Cargos moving on this route take 6-9 days in Pakistan and 16 days till Kabul)}. In the present logistic system, cargo moving to Afghanistan through Pakistan falls into three distinct categories of cargo being handled by various carrying agencies. First category is Afghan Transit Trade Goods (Commercial Cargo which is commonly called as ATT Goods). It is being handled exclusively by Pakistan Railways and NLC (which was paid handsome and profited of it)
The second landward route is through the Central Asian countries -the Northern Distribution Network- established in 2009 - this is much more expensive than the Pakistan route. The NDN covers over 3,100 mile of seas, roads and rails of various countries like Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Estonia and Russia. Via this network, supplies start their journey either in a Black Sea port in Georgia or the Baltic Sea port of Riga, Latvia or Estonia. On average, from the time an order is placed to the time of delivery, it takes on average about 75 days transit time from Germany to Afghanistan. The NDN provided 35% of US supplies in April 2010, 50% in April 2011, and 55%-65% in July-September 2011. Currently, around 75% of all the goods transported by land including 85% of the fuel was being transported via the NDN. The number of TEU / containers could be expanded to 500 per week, if needed and 24,000 TEUs per year could be transported while operating at the maximum capacity of the NDN, Till 2015 even Russia had been allowing the use of its territory/airspace to enable the flow of supplies to Afghanistan.with a halt of supplies for a year . and this number is expected to reach 95 % by 2018 completely reducing the dependence on Pakistani routes .
get some brains first .
We paid with blood to clean up the open spaces inside of FATA, actually still are paying in blood due to x-border attacks from the other side, but we have denied the space to TTP for the most part. The same needs to be done on the Afghan side. Start posting the ANA and their elite commando units in the Pashtun dominated areas. Squeeze the space within Afghanistan and once there is no question of Taliban having autonomy in 30-45% of the Afghan countryside then this cross-border thing becomes a non-issue.