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, July 5, 2008

War News for Saturday, July 05, 2008

The DnD is reporting the death of a Canadian ISAF Airman from a non-combat related incident in the Theatre Support Element compound in the Gulf region on Friday, July 4th. No other details are being released. The Chronicle is reporting that Cpl. Brendan Anthony Downey based in Dundurn, Sask in the Arabian desert offers logistical support to the military operation in Afghanistan. Wikipedia states that the base is widely reported to be at Camp Mirage / Minhad Air Base (25°01′37″N, 55°22′15″E), a base of the United Arab Emirates Air Force.

July 3 airpower summary:

NY Times: a group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: A bomb attached to a car killed two people and wounded eight others on Friday in the Yarmouk district of western Baghdad, police said.

#2: Friday Two bodies were found in Baghdad on Friday, police said.

#3: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded one policeman and one civilian in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: On Friday evening gunmen planted a bomb near a house at Shuhdaa neighborhood in Jalwlaa (northeast Baquba). Six people from one family were injured when the bomb exploded (a wife, four daughters and a son).


Mahaweel:
#1: One body was found with gunshot wounds and signs of torture on Friday in a house in Mahaweel, 60 km (35 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Basra:
#1: Gunmen killed Salim al-Daraji, an official of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) in northern Basra, 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad on Friday, police said.


Tikrit:
#1: Iraqi police killed four militants, two of them foreigners, just south of Tikrit, 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Irbil:
#1: Two unidentified bodies showing signs of having been shot were found in the northern Iraq district of Makhmour on Saturday, police said."The bodies, found in the village of al-Qadiriya, al-Kuweir district, (30 km) west of Makhmour, were taken to a morgue in the city," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq. Makhmour, 68 km southwest of Arbil, is one of the districts administratively disputed by Arbil, 349 km northeast of Baghdad, and Ninewa, 405 km northeast of the Iraqi capital.


Mosul:
#1: Meanwhile, a civilian was killed and six others, including two policemen, were injured in a car bomb attack that targeted their vehicle in northern Mosul city.

#2: Militants shot dead two off-duty policemen in a market in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
Fallujah:
#1: An Iraqi Sunni Arab politician escaped a bomb explosion with wounds in the city of Fallujah in Anbar province on Saturday, a local police source said. A roadside bomb detonated near the car of Khaled al-Ubeidi, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party in central Fallujah on Saturday morning, wounding him, his driver and a bystander, the source toldXinhua on condition of anonymity.

A roadside bomb wounded Khalid Mohammed, an official of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Falluja, and three other people, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, police said



Afghanistan:
#1: Two gunmen shot dead an Afghan parliamentarian near his home in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday. Habibullah Sanzenai, a member of the lower house of parliament for Kandahar and a tribal leader, was shot returning home overnight in the Zhari district of the province, a hotbed of Taliban militant activity.

#2: In neighboring Helmand province, militants planting a roadside bomb detonated the device prematurely, killing 10 Taliban, said police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

#3: An operation by Afghan soldiers resulted to the deaths of eight militants in southeastern Paktika province on Friday, the Defence Ministry said. Three soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in separate incidents in other parts of the country.

Posted by whisker at 4:29 AM

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