Not Kuwait? Not Saudi Arabia? / Supply lines

In a very weird AP interview, Adm Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said that he was ready/planning to implement any Obama policy to withdraw troops from Iraq. Besides the very weird tone of the article, there was this.

Mullen, once a critic of Obama's plan to pull combat forces from Iraq in 16 months, said the Pentagon has already identified and practiced travel routes out of Iraq along exit routes through Turkey and Jordan.

The governments in those two bordering countries are U.S. allies, and Mullen said they support the withdrawal planning effort.

So, the egress is being planned north through the Kurds and Turkey and west through the Sunnis and Jordan (and Israel,) but not south through the Shia and Kuwait or Saudi Arabia?

Maybe the key is in that second paragraph, withdrawing through those countries who "support the withdrawal planning effort."

And, while we're at it, take a look at this WaPo piece on the US seeking an alternative Afghanistan supply route around the Pakistani militants along Khyber pass.

The growing danger has forced the Pentagon to seek far longer, but possibly safer, alternate routes through Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, according to Defense Department documents.

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