A Man Who Knows How : Send Pagonis--the Gulf War’s logistic genius--to Russia

Nineteen days from now, Russia may begin to starve. According to the Russian State Statistics Committee, stocks of beef and poultry will run out Feb. 23, vegetable oil Feb. 24, butter March 5, sugar March 16. Deputy Premier Yegor Gaidar has authorized farmers to carry guns to protect their crops from starving marauders.

Russia’s once huge gold reserves are nearly exhausted. Relief purchases, if they can be made at all, will be made on credit. Let’s suppose for the moment that the credit will be forthcoming and that the West will not simply stand by and watch the Cold War’s losers kill each other for bread. Then what?

As of late last month, $80 billion in relief had been pledged to the Commonwealth of Independent States, 57.1% of it from Germany, 6.5% from the United States.

But much of that aid was expected to take months or more to reach its destination. Starvation could bring Russia to anarchy in days. Is there, anywhere, someone who can mount a major rescue that soon?

Yes, there is. His name is Lt. Gen. William (Gus) Pagonis, and as head of the Army’s 22nd Support Command, he was the logistic genius behind the Gulf War, the man who moved a population equal to Wyoming’s, along with equipment and enough food for two months--all in a matter of 21 days. Pagonis did that once. He may have to do it again.

The logistic challenge of food for Russia dwarfs even the Gulf War airlift, of course. But if others will follow the example of Germany in filling the C-130s, the United States can not only fly them but can perhaps duplicate, on a vaster terrain, the remarkable instant distribution system that Pagonis set up in the desert.

America has always, as President Bush recently said, risen to the occasion. Gus Pagonis, the new world order has a job for you.