The end of wars

[trof]

No, not a sudden mass enlightenment.
Not a 'light bulb' moment of realization of the futility and costs.
An inevitability.

Because the U.S. military (and all armed forces, for that matter) runs on oil.
And when we either run out, or can no longer afford to buy it, that's the end of military mobility.
And an immobile fighting force ain't worth a bucket of spit.

"FACT 8: According to 2007 CIA World Fact Book there are only 35 countries in the world consuming more oil than DoD. Guess how many countries consume more oil per capita than the DoD? Only three.<13>

FACT 9: How much oil does the U.S. military consume abroad? There exist no official estimates. Let me know if you see or hear one. According to my most pessimist estimates it is about 150 thousand barrels per day. Note that in this estimate I take DESC sales figures as granted.

FACT 11: Since the military's war machines burns fuel at such intense rates, it becomes impractical to talk about consumption in miles per gallon. That is why fuel use in military applications is shown in "gallons-per-mile," "gallons-per-hour," and "barrels-per-hour."

Here are some examples: Flying gas-guzzling bomber B-52 burns about 3300 gallon per hour, flying gas stations KC-135 and KC-10 (aerial refueling tankers) burn on average 2650 and 2070 gallons per hour respectively. Famous F-15 and F-16 fighter aircrafts burn about 1580 and 800 gallons per hour respectively.

Armored vehicles have very low fuel efficiency. For instance the Abrams tank can travel less than 0.6 mile per gallon of fuel, and Bradley fighting vehicle less than 2 miles on a gallon of fuel.

High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (often called Humvee in military circles), which replaced World war II ear Jeep two decades ago, gets as few as 4 miles per gallon in city driving and 8 miles per gallon on the highway. In comparison, Ford's Model T got 25 miles per gallon, and today a Ford Explorer gets 18 miles per gallon.

FACT 12: In 2006 Air Force consumed around 2.6 billion gallons of jet-fuel which is the same amount of fuel U.S. airplanes consumed during WWII (between December 1941 and August 1945).

FACT 13: American GI is the most energy-consuming soldier ever seen on the field of war."
http://www.energybulletin.net/29925.html

[unhappycamper]

1. The US military admitted to burning 1,200,000 barrels a month:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=13024

[Thothmes]

2. Another of fuel consumption in the Navy, tons per hour.