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, August 10, 2007

Security Incidents for Friday, August 10, 2007

(1) MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier from a non-hostile, unspecified cause, presumably in Baghdad, on Wednesday, August 8th.

(2) Reuters is reporting the death of a NATO soldier from enemy action while on patrol in southern Afghanistan on Friday, August 10th. One other NATO soldier was wounded in the attack. As usual, NATO does not divulge the nationalities of the victims.

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Baghdad:
#1: U.S. forces said they killed four insurgents and detained 10 others in operations in the provinces of Baghdad and Salahuddin.


Diyala Prv:
Baquba:
#1: A roadside bomb also exploded near a minibus in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing two passengers and wounding four others

#2: another civilian was killed in a drive-by shooting as he was walking elsewhere in the city, police said.


Yusifiyah:
#1: During an early morning raid Aug. 10, a U.S. helicopter executed a forced landing in Yusifiyah, ten miles south of Baghdad, while supporting a planned mission. Two U.S. Soldiers sustained non-life threatening injuries when the aircraft landed. Initial reports from ground forces do not clearly identify the cause of the mishap while in transit to the proposed target. The cause of the aircraft accident is currently under investigation.


Garna:
#1: Gunmen killed Wisam al-Maliki, son of the sheikh of the Bani Malik tribe of Prime Minister Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in the southern Iraqi town of Garna, 80 km (50 miles) north of Basra, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: A car bomb struck a market in a Kurdish area in the northern city of Kirkuk on Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens, police said. The deadliest attack was a parked car bomb that tore through the stalls as the market was packed with afternoon shoppers in a predominantly Kurdish area in southern Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad. Police initially said it was a suicide attack, but police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader later said it was a parked car bomb. Qader said at least eight people were killed and 45 were wounded.

A car bomb killed 11 people and wounded 45 others near a market in a Kurdish district of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Friday, police said.

#2: A civilian was killed by an armed group in an attack in central Kirkuk on Friday morning, an official Iraqi police source said. "An unidentified group of gunmen in a vehicle without number plates shot down Abdul-Amir Ezz al-Din in the central Kirkuk area of al-Qadissiya al-Thaniya," the source, who declined to have his name mentioned due to security concerns, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

#3: In another incident in the city, which lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, four people, including two policemen, were wounded in twin explosive charge bombings that targeted a police patrol, the same source said."The two devices went off consecutively near a patrol from the Dumez police station and the Shiite al-Nidaa mosque in central Kirkuk


Kurdistan:
#1: A Swedish passenger jet has been fired at while flying over northeastern Iraq. The Nordic Airways plane was carrying some 130 passengers, and had just taken off from Sulaymaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan, en route to Stockholm. After the pilot saw bright light flashes, the crew realized that someone had opened fire but no damage has been reported, and no passengers were injured. The plane landed at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport on Thursday, without the passengers being aware of what had occurred.


Rutba:
#1: Police said they found the bodies of three people in the western Iraqi town of Rutba, near the Jordanian border.



Afghanistan:
#1: One NATO soldier was killed and another wounded on Friday during a patrol in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said.

#2: Afghan and U.S. coalition forces patrolling Afghanistan's volatile opium heartland were ambushed by Taliban insurgents, and the ensuing battle and air strikes killed at least 10 militants, the coalition said. In Helmand province, Afghan and U.S. forces were conducting a combat patrol Thursday near the town of Washer when they saw civilians leaving the area, "providing an early warning to the (Afghan army) that an attack was forthcoming," said a coalition statement issued late Thursday. The troops were ambushed by "an estimated 50 insurgents" who were holed up in several positions and buildings in the area. The troops called for air strikes to assist in the battle.

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