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


Monday, September 7, 2009

War News for Monday, September 07, 2009

The DND/CF is reporting the deaths of two Canadian ISAF soldiers in a roadside bombing in the vicinity of Dand District, 14 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City, Kandahar province, Afghanistan on Sunday, September 6th. Five additional soldiers were wounded in the attack.

NATO is reporting the death of an American ISAF soldier during an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, September 6th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier in an "exchange of fire with insurgents" in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, September 6th. The Netherlands military confirms this as a Dutch soldier who died from small arms fire - gunshot wounds near near Deh Rawood, Uruzgan province.

The AFP is reporting the death of a second French ISAF soldier following an IED attack in Kipisa province, Afghanistan on Friday, September 4th, which killed one soldier and wounded nine others. The soldier died in the military hospital in Germany on Sunday, September 6th.


Fake Afghan Poll Sites Favored Karzai, Officials Assert: Afghans loyal to President Hamid Karzai set up hundreds of fictitious polling sites where no one voted but where hundreds of thousands of ballots were still recorded toward the president’s re-election, according to senior Western and Afghan officials here.


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: In Baghdad on Monday, a bomb killed a driver as he approached a military checkpoint in Sadr City district, police said.

Two soldiers and a civilian on Monday were injured when a sticky explosive device went off in Baghdad, according to the Iraqi police. “A sticky improvised explosive device (IED) detonated inside a civilian vehicle near a checkpoint at al-Hamza Square of Baghdad’s al-Sadr City, wounding two Iraqi servicemen and a civilian, and causing damage to the car,” a police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A sticky improvised explosive device (IED) on Monday targeted a government car in downtown Baghdad, wounding its driver, according to a police source. “The device, placed inside a car belonging to the political prisoners department, detonated today while it was passing al-Wathiq Square near downtown Baghdad’s al-Karada neighborhood, wounding the driver and causing significant damage to the car,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: Two Iraqi soldiers and two civilians on Monday were injured when a man threw a hand grenade at a checkpoint in the capital Baghdad, according to a police source. “An unknown assailant threw a hand grenade at a joint army-police checkpoint on 14 Ramadan St., al-Mansour neighborhood, western Baghdad, wounding two soldiers and two civilians,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#4: Sunday Four civilians were injured by a roadside bomb in Saidiyah neighborhood in south Baghdad around 10 p.m.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Three policemen, including a station director, were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in the district of Baaquba on Sunday, a security source in Diala said. “The explosive charge ripped through the main street of al-Katoun area, (2 km) west of Baaquba, wounding three policemen, including Lt. General Saman al-Talabani, the director of al-Mafraq police station, (1 km) west of Baaquba,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: One civilian on Monday was killed when an explosive device went off in a Diala neighborhood, according to a local security source. “Today, an improvised explosive device (IED) hit a motorbike in al-Mafraq area, downtown Baaquba, killing its driver,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: Sunday Four explosive experts were injured while they were defusing two roadside bombs in Al-Katoon area in west Baquba.


Beiji:
#1: An inspector working for the electricity department in Salah al-Din on Monday escaped an assassination attempt when an explosive charge hit his office in the province, according to an informed source. “This afternoon, an improvised explosive device (IED) targeted the office of an electricity inspector, Mahmoud Ali, in Beiji district, northern Salah al-Din, causing damage but no casualties,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Hawija:
#1: An improvised explosive device (IED) targeted a Multi-National Force (MNF) patrol vehicle in al-Huweija district, southwest of Kirkuk city, an informed source said on Monday. “Yesterday evening, an explosive device targeted an MNF patrol vehicle in Hay al-Sray area, Huweija district (65 km southwest of Kirkuk),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.There has been no word on casualties or damage, the source noted.


Kirkuk:
#1: In northern Iraq, two children playing with a hand grenade they found in a stream were killed when it exploded, said police in the city of Kirkuk.

#2: Gunmen shot dead an employee in the state-run North Oil Company in a drive-by shooting on Sunday in southern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Mosul:
#1: A policeman and three of his sons were killed or wounded when a sticky explosive charge targeted his vehicle near Mosul city, according to a local police source. “During a late hour last night, Col. Silal Taha from Ninewa’s Police Academy was killed along with one of his sons when a sticky explosive device targeted his vehicle in Talkeef district (15 km north of Mosul),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “Two more of his sons, who were inside the car, were injured in the blast that occurred near an Asayesh (Kurdish for security) checkpoint,” the source noted.

#2: Gunmen broke in a house killng amother of a policeman and his daughter in Al-Tanak area in west Mosul on Sunday evening.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A suicide car bomber targeted a line of vehicles stopped at a checkpoint in western Iraq on Monday, killing eight people and wounding 16, police and hospital officials said. The car exploded as vehicles were waiting to be inspected before crossing a bridge near the provincial capital of Ramadi, a police officer said. The dead included three policemen; the others were civilians, he added.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: An Afghan couple and their daughter have been killed and two other people wounded after a rocket hit a house in Kabul, the Afghan capital. Afghan officials said on Monday that a rocket had hit a house in the city's Spin Kalay neighbourhood on Monday morning, killing a father, mother and young girl as they slept. "Three members of one family have been martyred and two others wounded," an interior ministry official was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

#2: Unknown armed men shot dead a woman worked outside home in Kandahar province the birthplace of Taliban in south Afghanistan on Monday, police said. "Unidentified armed men opened fire on Ms. Latifa, 21, in Kandahar city this morning, killing her on the spot," police chief of southern region Ghulam Ali Wahdat told Xinhua. Worked as in-charge of tailoring project in Women Affairs Department, the late Latifa, was on her way home when two armed men riding a motorbike opened fire and killed her.

#3: A roadside bomb killed two Pakistani soldiers Monday in a militant stronghold near the Afghan border, intelligence and army officials said. Two soldiers also were wounded when the bomb went off near the convoy traveling from Shakai to Wana, the main town in South Waziristan tribal region, the three officials said. The officials, two of whom work for Pakistani intelligence, requested anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to media.

#4: Security forces on Monday killed 10 alleged militants in the lawless northwest Khyber Agency, the military said, in a fresh push against insurgents in the border region. 'Security forces killed at least 10 militants and destroyed four hideouts of militants including a training centre in Kula Markaz village of Khyber,' a statement from the paramilitary Frontier Corps said.

#5: Western troops killed two Taliban fighters in a clash in Maidan Wardak province on Saturday, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.


DoD: 2nd Lt. Darryn D. Andrews

DND/CF: Corporal Jean-François Drouin

DND/CF: Major Yannick Pépin

MoD: korporaal Kevin van de Rijdt gesneuveld

MoD: Le caporal-chef Thomas Rousselle

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