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


Saturday, June 7, 2008

War News for Saturday, June 07, 2008

Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Iraqi policemen uncovered on Saturday a mass grave at one of the former Iraqi army's camps in al-Wihda district, southern Baghdad, with a number of unidentified bodies yet to be counted, a security source said.

Iraqi security forces found the remains of four people and two bags filled with human bones at a former army intelligence centre in the town of al-Wihda, 25 km (15 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Fridays update Four gunmen were killed while planting a roadside bomb at Al Nasr Wa Salam area (18 miles west of Baghdad).

#3: Fridays update Gunmen opened fire on a policeman at Al Nasr Wa Salam who received a note threatening to kill him from Ansar Al Sunna, a Sunni insurgent group. He was shot twice and his situation is critical.

#4: A car bomb struck a police patrol in the Mansour district in western Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding two others, police said.

A booby-trapped car parked near the Nusour Square detonated near a police patrol in the afternoon, killing a civilian and wounding two others, along with damaging several civilian cars, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The other explosion took place nearly simultaneously across town at a crowded bus stop where passengers were lining up to catch rides to eastern Shiite neighborhoods, though police said the target was the passing convoy of a top Iraqi police general. Three people were killed and 15 wounded, Brig. Nazar Majeed among them, said an officer on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.

#5: A car bomb killed one civilian and wounded another six in central Baghdad, police said.

Another car bomb went off near the building of Ministry of Industry and a church in Bab al-Sharji area in central Baghdad, killing at least a civilian and wounding six others, the source said.

#6: A bomb planted beneath a car wounded a ministry of defence employee and two other people in the Mansour district in western Baghdad, police said.

#7: Iraqi national police and U.S. forces seized a number of weapons caches and killed one gunman on Friday in northwest Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

#8: Earlier, a roadside bomb went off near a U.S. patrol in the Ur neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad, damaging a U.S. Humvee, the source said without providing further details about the incident as the troops immediately sealed off the area.

#9: Around 11:00 a.m. an IED exploded in Ur neighborhood in east Baghdad. No casualties were reported.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Five Iraqi soldiers were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near their patrol northeast of Baaquba city on Saturday, police said. "An IED went off near an Iraqi army patrol on the road leading to the village of Sneija, al-Wajihiya district in al-Muqdadiya, (45 km) northeast of Baaquba, leaving five soldiers wounded, three of them seriousl," a security source, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq – Aswat al-Iraq.

#2: Fridays update A roadside bomb targeted a house for the KDP's(Kurdistan Democratic Party) member in Jalwla town (northeast of Baquba).One person was injured


Kirkuk:
#1: Fridays update Gunmen kidnapped a colonel of the former Iraqi intelligence during Saddam's regime. He was inside his car at the petrol station in Khadraa neighborhood in downtown Kirkuk city when a BMW car stopped and took him away .

#2: Fridays update Gunmen opened fire injured a civilian in Azadi neighborhood in downtown Kirkuk city.

#3: Fridays update A roadside bomb targeted an officer's house in Sulaiman Beck town (south of Kirkuk). No casualties reported but small damage with the house.


Nineveh Prv:
#1: The governor of the Iraq's Nineveh province survived an assassination attempt in the northern city of Mosul on Saturday, government sources said. Militants opened fire on Dored Kashmola's convoy in the Zanjily area where he was supervising an operation, sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The attack destroyed the vehicles, but no injuries or deaths were reported, the sources said, adding it was not the first time Kashmola survived an attempt on his life. (dpa).

Mosul:
#1: A statement from the military says American soldiers called in airstrikes and killed the four men today after coming under small-arms fire southwest of Mosul. They also destroyed two buildings filled with weapons, ammunition and graffiti indicating they were used for foreign militants.

#2: Meanwhile, three Iraqi police officers were wounded on Saturday while trying to prevent a suicide bomber from detonating his explosives in front of a police station in the Biaj area of Mosul, security sources told dpa.


Al Anbar Prv:
Ramadi:
#1: update At least six people, including four policemen, were wounded as a woman suicide bomber blew up herself at a police station near Ramadi city, 110 km west of Baghdad, an MNF spokesman said on Saturday. A female suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to her body, last night, at a police station in Al Bali area of Khalidiya district, wounding four policemen and two civilians,” Maher al-Iraqi, the Multi-National Forces spokesman in Ramadi, told Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq.



Afghanistan:
#1: Several militants were killed and three detained in an operation in the Taga Aab district of north-eastern Kapisa province after the militants attacked the coalition forces while they conducted a search operation on Friday, the US military said in a statement. "During the operation, several militants repeatedly engaged the joint force from covered defensive positions," the statement said, adding that the troops responded, killing several militants.

#2: A separate militant group attacked the joint force from inside another building in the same area, it said. The coalition forces called in air support, killing the militants.

#3: Meanwhile, several other militants were killed and five were detained during a search operation in the Kajaki district of southern Helmand earlier this week, a separate US military statement said.

#4: At least 15 other insurgents were killed in the neighbouring province of Uruzgan after the militants attacked coalition bases in the province, the statement said. The militants used mortars and small-arms fire during their attack in Charasyab and Nawrak villages, it said, adding: "The militants fled to nearby villages where the combined forces saw them attempting to use villagers as shields against attacks." No coalition, Afghan forces or Afghan civilians were killed or injured during the course of operation.

#5: Taliban militants abducted a Pakistani employee of an Afghan company working in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Saturday, provincial police chief Syed Aqa Saqib said. "The Pakistani national was a road engineer and worked for an Afghan road construction company to reconstruct the Kandahar-Gereshk road when armed Taliban militants after injuring his Afghan driver took him away," Saqib told Xinhua. But he did not give more details. However, Saqib added that a mine planted by militants struck a vehicle of the same company in the same area Saturday killing one Afghan guard and wounding another.


Casualty Reports:

Sgt. Preston D. Jackson II, who is 29, was critically injured after a roadside bomb exploded near Gardez, Afghanistan. assigned to the 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, headquartered at Fort Campbell. Jackson was treated at a hospital in Germany and is being brought to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., probably Friday or this weekend, the Defense Department said.Jackson suffered from broken bones in both of his legs, back and pelvic area, and has had his right foot amputated above his ankle. He has open wounds remaining on his left foot, he suffered from a deflated right lung, and surgeons removed shrapnel from his intestines and face.

#2: Sgt. Patrick Hunt was injured in early May while serving with the 68th Armor Regiment of the U.S. Army. He was attacked near Sadr City. The force of the blast threw him against the side of the vehicle." He didn't think it hurt him at the time," said his mother, Carol Hunt. "But over a period of time, his arm and hand started going numb. The first three fingers on his right hand started curling under."Carol Hunt did not believe anyone else was injured in the attack. Her son, a tank commander, spent a week at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a U.S. military hospital in Germany.

#3: Army staff sergeant Luke Murphy lost his right leg in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq two years ago.

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