The present-day U.S. military qualifies by any measure as highly professional, much more so than its Cold War predecessor. Yet the purpose of today’s professionals is not to preserve peace but to fight unending wars in distant places. Intoxicated by a post-Cold War belief in its own omnipotence, the United States allowed itself to be drawn into a long series of armed conflicts, almost all of them yielding unintended consequences and imposing greater than anticipated costs. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. forces have destroyed many targets and killed many people. Only rarely, however, have they succeeded in accomplishing their assigned political purposes. . . . [F]rom our present vantage point, it becomes apparent that the “Revolution of ‘89” did not initiate a new era of history. At most, the events of that year fostered various unhelpful illusions that impeded our capacity to recognize and respond to the forces of change that actually matter.

Andrew Bacevich


Friday, June 15, 2007


A Google earth image of the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra Iraq which appears to be a pre-war image.


(1) MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths of three Task Force Lightning soldiers from "an explosion" in the vicinity of the northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday, June 14th.

(2) The Associated Press is reporting that a U.S. soldier died somewhere in Iraq on Wednesday, June 13th, in a non-combat related incident. U.S. military sources said that the incident is under investigation.

(3) CENTCOM is reporting the death of a Task Force Lightning soldier in a small arms fire attack in Diyala Province on Thursday, June 14th.

(4) The DoD would appear to be identifying a new death, not previously reported by CENTCOM. Specialist Damon G. LeGrand, 27, of Lakeside, California, apparently died on Tuesday, June 12th, in Ba'qubah in Diyala Province, after being severely wounded when his unit was attacked. Legrand was assigned to the 571st Military Police Company based out of Fort Lewis, WA. The DoD states that the attack happened in Baghdad. But media reports appear to conflict with this. An article from Idaho Falls station KIFI (in which his parents are quoted) and also one from the News Tribune of Tacoma (Washington) state that the ambush happened in Diyala Province. Officials at Fort Lewis said that two anti-tank mines exploded under LeGrand's Humvee, then insurgents opened up from both sides with small arms and RPG fire. Indeed, the last death from the 571st MP Company occurred in Muqdadiyah in Diyala Province. Idaho Falls station KIFI reports that LeGrand was raised in the San Diego area, but that his parents moved to Idaho Falls a few years ago. His wife and two young daughters were staying with his parents while he was in Iraq.

(5) Deutsche Presse-Agentur is citing U.S. military sources as saying that a soldier assigned to U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan was killed in a combat operation in the eastern province of Paktika on Friday, June 15th.

___________________________________________

In Country:
#1: another soldier died Wednesday in a non-combat related incident, which the military said it was investigating.


Baghdad:
#1: (update) The Green Zone was repeatedly locked down as U.S. radar picked up incoming rocket fire into the area, which contains the U.S. and British embassies and many key Iraqi government buildings. Workers darted between U.S.-occupied buildings in the sprawling region wearing flak jackets and helmets. A senior military official said it is believed some non-Americans were killed or wounded.

#2: Five bodies were found shot and tortured in Baghdad on Thursday, police said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: One Task Force Lightning Soldier was killed as a result of injuries sustained from small arms fire while conducting operations in Diyala Province, Thursday.


Sawirah:
#1: U.S. forces stormed Sadr's office in Sawirah, just southeast of Baghdad, killing one Sadrist and arresting another, eyewitnesses said on Friday. "A U.S. force, last night, stormed the Sadr's office in Sawirah district, shooting one Sadrist and detaining another," an eyewitness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Basra:
#1: police said unknown bombers leveled a Sunni shrine near Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. Gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked the shrine in suburban Zubair late Thursday, partially damaging the building, police said. They returned early Friday, planting bombs inside the structure and exploding it completely, police said. No injuries were reported.


Kirkuk:
#1: Three Task Force Lightning Soldiers were killed as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion near their vehicle while conducting operations in Kirkuk Province, Thursday. One Soldier was also wounded and transported to a Coalition medical facility for treatment.

#2: A child was killed when an explosive charge went off near an Iraqi police patrol in northern Kirkuk, a Kirkuk police source said on Friday. The explosive device "targeted one of the patrols of the Dumez police station, killing Haidar Ali who happened to be near the blast scene," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq. None of the soldiers in the patrol were hurt in the attack that occurred in the northern part of Kirkuk



Afghanistan:
#1: A soldier of the US-led coalition forces succumbed to injuries sustained in a combat operation in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province Friday morning, the US military said in a statement.

#2: Two suicide attackers blew themselves up near NATO convoys in southern Afghanistan Friday, one of them killing five children and wounding two foreign soldiers, Afghan officials said. The five children, all boys aged about 12, were killed in the blast that ripped through a residential area in the town of Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, a deputy provincial governor said. "A suicide attacker detonated explosives in his vehicle close to a NATO convoy in Tirin Kot, killing five children nearby and wounding three elderly civilians," deputy provincial governor Mohammad Nabi told AFP.

#3: Another suicide bomber struck hours later in the city of Kandahar, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) away, police said. "Five civilians were wounded in a suicide attack on a NATO convoy," Kandahar province police chief Ismatullah Alizay told AFP. "I have no information on the possible casualties on the NATO side," he said.

Witnesses to an attack on a Canadian convoy in Afghanistan today say the explosion was the work of a suicide bomber. No Canadians were injured in the blast, which sent an unspecified number of Afghans to hospital. A Canadian military official in Kandahar says the cause of the explosion has not yet been determined, saying only that it's an improvised explosive device.

#4: Two Afghan staff members of a Dutch medical aid organization have been kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan, Radio Netherlands reported Friday. The two staff members of HealthNet TPO, a doctor and his chauffeur, were on a work visit and failed to return to the hospital where they are based, said Radio Netherlands, without specifying the time of the incident. The abduction happened in the troubled Nangahar province

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