Having said that, they are making it through to the worst affected areas, and are airlifting food and supplies to 450,000 evacuees.
Helicopters, essential for swiftly airlifting casualties, remain vulnerable there, as they proved to be in Mogadishu, in Somalia, in 1993.
And the Americans have let it be known that they could still open a northern front by airlifting troops into the mainly Kurdish north of Iraq, and would bank on the Kurdish militia operating there for support.In any event, whatever the timing of a second bill and however hard the generals now urge MPs to pass it, it would still not be sure to get through.
The Rwandans went straight for the capital, Kinshasa, airlifting hundreds of troops across the continent, but they were repelled by the intervention of Zimbabwean and Angolan troops flown in to rescue Mr Kabila.
Tranquillising and airlifting them to a new location is difficult and expensive.
She says that she has delivered satellite phones, chemical suits and 300,000 dry meals since arriving in Deraa, the southern city where the uprising began in March 2011, and has succeeded in airlifting some Syrian injured to Tel Aviv.
While it continues to co-operate with America in securing dangerous nuclear materials around the world most recently airlifting back to Russia a whopping 286 kilos of highly-enriched uranium fuel from a research reactor in Dresden in former East Germany Russian officialdom's souring mood at home augurs ill.Russia is not the only country with a nuclear-smuggling habit.
For peacekeeping duties they generally ask friendly Western governments for help in airlifting troops, or charter civilian planes.Despite such handicaps, many are participating in a growing number of African Union and UN peacekeeping missions.
The US military has begun airlifting French soldiers and equipment to Mali.
After getting his pilot's license in the 1990s, Ford has made headlines with daring exploits including rescuing a missing 13-year-old boy scout with his helicopter in 2001 and airlifting a trapped mountain climber in Wyoming to safety the year before.
Borders!& 8212shutter their doors, perhaps we should think about airlifting some good old literature to allies stuck behind unintentionally-erected book blockades.
