The Khyber Pass closed briefly again yesterday after a grenade attack on a Pakistani army camp, just the latest in a long string of closings which have threatened NATO’s ability to use the route, through which roughly three quarters of all supplies for the war in Afghanistan pass.

According to General David Petraeus, the United States has obtained permission from Russia and other nations to use a land route through Central Asia as an alternative.

In addition to being more expensive and less efficient than the Khyber route, the land route will leave the United States dependent on Russia to allow their military supplies through at a time when relations between the two nations are at a post-Cold War low. Hardly an ideal situation when President Obama hopes to dramatically escalate the war in Afghanistan, but with the situation in Southern Afghanistan increasingly out of control, they have little choice if they want to keep the war going.

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