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, January 11, 2008

War News for Friday, January 11, 2008

Photo: A B-1 Lancer drops cluster bombs. The head of an anti-Qaeda front said that a massive US air blitz on Al-Qaeda targets south of Baghdad killed a local leader of the jihadi network and at least 20 other militants. (AFP/USAF/File)

Arab Jabour - 21 Qaeda fighters killed in US air blitz: Iraq sheikh. A massive US air blitz on Al-Qaeda targets south of Baghdad killed a local leader of the jihadi network and at least 20 other militants, the head of an anti-Qaeda front said on Friday.

Baghdad - Three unknown bodies found in Baghdad

Four killed in Baghdad bakery attack. A suicide car bombing outside a bakery in eastern Baghdad on Friday evening killed four civilians and wounded at least eight, security officials said. Iraq has been hit by a new surge of violence since the start of the new year, with more than 100 people killed in bombings, suicide attacks and shootings, about half of them in Baghdad.

U.S. forces raid northern Baghdad. U.S. forces launched a raid of arrests in the northern Baghdad town of al-Hurriya, where small arms clashes with gunmen erupted during the early hours of Friday, eyewitnesses said.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi soldiers killed nine gunmen and arrested 59 others during the past 24 hours across Iraq, the Defence Ministry said.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces killed two gunmen and detained 11 others during operations on Thursday and Friday in central and northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

Salahuddin - Friday morning, a joint forces of police and army raided an area to the west of Samara arresting 11 members of Al-Qaeda organization while the twelfth one was wearing a vest filled with explosives who exploded himself whose name was Abu Qutada Al-Siwidi , one of the wanted leaders of Al-Qaeda.

Diyala - Friday morning , a joint forces (American army , Iraqi army and Sahwa - Awakening council) finishing their operation in Muqdadiya (36 km north east of Baquba) in six of its villages clearing the area from Al-Qaeda arresting 20 (ten of them are wanted while the others are suspected) and killing ten others.

MAHMUDIYA - A roadside bomb wounded three policemen when it hit their patrol in Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

Dahuk province - Turkish artillery shelled northern Iraq on Friday morning, but there were no immediate reports of any casualties or material damage, a Kurdish government official said. Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Peshmerga security forces of northern Iraq, said Turkish forces had shelled two areas in Dahuk province for two hours.

UPDATE:

4 al-Qaeda gunmen killed, detained near Samarra.

Posted by Dancewater at 11:45 AM

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