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


Tuesday, October 23, 2007

War News for Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Photo: An Iraqi woman and her infant walk though rubble in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq Monday, Oct. 22, 2007. Police said two people were injured in an apparent raid by U.S. troops backed by helicopters. (AP Photo/ Adil al-Kazali)


Security Incidents:

Kurds From Iraq Kill 17 Soldiers in Turkey

U.S. forces killed one insurgent and detained 10 suspected insurgents during military operations on Oct. 20-22 in the areas of Baghdad, Mosul, Thar Thar and Rabiae, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces killed one insurgent and wounded five in an air strike on Monday in northern Baghdad on men planting a roadside bomb, the U.S. military said.

Baghdad - Around 7:45 a.m. a road side bomb targeted a police vehicle in Zafaraniyah. One policeman was injured.

Baghdad - Around 12:30 p.m. gunmen attacked policemen guarding Al Mamoun intermediate school in Al Mamoun neighborhood west Baghdad. Two policemen were killed and two gunmen were killed and another gunman was injured.

Baghdad - A roadside bomb wounded two people in the eastern Zayouna district of Baghdad, police said.

Near Baquba - A roadside bomb exploded near a minibus, killing three people, including one woman, and wounding 10, including five women, on the main road near the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Baquba - two people were gunned down in central Baquba.

Baquba - Policemen also said they found a bullet-riddled body in Baquba.

Near Fallujah - Police found 15 men shot, bound and blindfolded, in a deserted building on Monday in a town near Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, police Lieutenant Colonel Jubair al-Dulaimi said.

Near Kirkuk - Joint Iraqi-US forces arrested 21 suspected gunmen, including nine wanted militants, in a raid across the villages of Taza, south-west of Kirkuk, during the early hours of Tuesday, a police source told the Voices of Iraq news agency.

Kirkuk - An IED inside a car exploded on a main road south of Kirkuk today. The driver was injured and a number of a near by cars were damaged in the explosion.

Kirkuk - Police found the body of Omed Hassan a member of the Kurdish security force known as Asayish near a cemetery south east of Kirkuk last night. Police said Hassan was found killed in his car with multiple gunshots in the head.

Kirkuk - A land mine exploded in Al Jadaida village west Kirkuk yesterday. Qadir Awad, a shepherd, was killed in the explosion.

Kirkuk - A package bomb injured two members of a family in Kirkuk yesterday. The package was given to the family as a present according to police.

Kirkuk - A foreign protection convoy shot and injured citizen Zirak Youness, 21, on a main road connects Kirkuk with Makhmour town last night. Arbil hospital emergency room said the man is in the hospital and he lost an eye.

Near Mosul - A civilian was killed when an explosive device went off inside his house in the district of al-Qiyara, 80 km south of Mosul, a police source in Ninewa said on Tuesday. "The father was killed but none of the other family members was harmed," the source, who declined to have his name mentioned, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq.

Muqdadiyah – Two people, including a policeman, were gunned down by militants. Also in Muqdadiyah, police forces said they captured Abu Saeed Al- Ameria, a leader of the al-Qaeda network in Iraq during raids.

Salahuddin - Gunmen kidnapped engineer Qusai Hassan on a main road in Tikrit today. Hassan works the housing and rebuilding office in Tikrit.

Samarra - US airstrike in Iraq kills 11, including civilians. The U.S. military said six Iraqi civilians were among 11 people killed in an air strike by an attack helicopter north of Baghdad early on Tuesday. The military said it had been targeting a group of five men who fled into a house after the helicopter crew saw them planting a roadside bomb in an area south of Samarra. Residents said 14 people were killed, including women and children.

MORE on the above incident - Police and residents of the village of Djila, however, gave a different account, saying the group of men attacked by the helicopter were three farmers who had left their homes at 4.30 a.m. (0130 GMT) to irrigate their fields. Two were killed in the initial air strike and the survivor ran back to his home, where other residents then gathered, said Abdul al-Rahman Iyadeh, a relative of the victims. The second air strike completely destroyed the house, killing 14 people, including six members of the Ibrahim Jassim family and five from another, he told Reuters. A local police officer, Captain Abdullah al-Isawi, put the death toll at 16 -- seven men, six women and three children.

Near Tikrit - 16 people were killed and 14 wounded when US forces conducted a near-dawn air raid south of Tikrit. An airstrike hit a house, 20 kilometres south of the city, killing seven men, six women and three children.

Basra - In Basra, 550 kilometres south of Baghdad, armed clashes between members of Mahdi Army and police sources have been ongoing since the early hours of Tuesday.

Additional incidents from yesterday:

BAGHDAD - Police said they found five bodies dumped across Baghdad on Monday.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed one soldier and wounded two others in the Jamiea district of western Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Police found six bodies, victims of violence, across Baghdad on Sunday, police said.

KERBALA - Iraqi security forces arrest Abdul Hadi al- Mohamadawi, the head of Sadr office in Kerbala and his aide in a raid on the Sadr office in the city, police said. Kerbala is 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad.

MOSUL - Five bodies, including one of a female lawyer, were found in various parts of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Kirkuk - Security forces found two unidentified bodies in Lailan district southeast Kirkuk today morning. The bodies were eye folded and hand cuffed and signs of bullets were on them.

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