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, October 26, 2009

War News for Monday, October 26, 2009

NATO is reporting the death of two U.S. ISAF service members in a roadside bombing in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, October 23rd.

The Danish Defense Ministry is reporting the death of a Danish ISAF soldier from hostile fire - gunshot wounds in the area around Gereshk town, Helmand province on Friday October 23rd.

NATO is reporting the deaths of four U.S. ISAF service members from a mid air collision and crash of two helicopters in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Monday, October 26th. Two additional soldiers were wounded in the crash.

NATO is reporting the deaths of Seven U.S. ISAF service members in a helicopter crash in an undisclosed location in western Afghanistan on Monday, October 26th. Three American civilians also died and eleven U.S. service members and fourteen Afghani soldiers were wounded in the crash.

NATO is reporting the death of a U.S. service member in an IED attack in an undisclosed area in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, October 25th.


Afghan police open fire at demonstration:

U.S. tested 2 Afghan scenarios in war game: Obama and advisers evaluating exercise that used different troop levels

Cost of Afghanistan project soars, benefits exaggerated:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: update The number of people killed in Sunday's twin car bomb blasts in Baghdad has risen to 155, with more than 500 wounded. The suicide bombings, near the Justice Ministry and city government offices.


Kut:
#1: One U.S. vehicle was damaged in a roadside bomb explosion in the south of Kut city on Sunday, according to a security source. “An improvised explosive device went off Sunday (Oct. 25) targeting a U.S. military convoy in south of Kut, damaging one of its vehicles,” the source told Aswat al-Ira news agency. “The explosion occurred when the convoy was coming from al-Hai district toward Kut,” he noted. No word was immediately available from the U.S. army on the incident.


Karbala:
#1: A bomb planted in a mini-bus killed three people and wounded eight at the northern entrance to Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, police said.


Safwan:
#1: Policemen seized three Katyusha missiles ready for firing towards vital installations and six launching pads in western Basra on Monday, a local police source said. “Security forces, acting upon intelligence tip-offs, seized three Katyusha rockets of 107 mm. caliber that were ready for firing at vital facilities in the area of Safwan, (60 km) western Basra, and deactivated them,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kirkuk:
#1: The body of a kidnapped person was found, while a suspected gunman was arrested in two separate incidents in Kirkuk, a source from the joint coordination center said on Sunday. “A police force found a body in al-Shourga region near the Olympic Stadium in northern Kirkuk,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The body belongs to Ghassan Mohammad Saleh, who was kidnapped on Friday (Oct. 23),” he added, noting that the body bore signs of gunshot wounds to the head.

#2: A student in the preparatory stage of education was kidnapped by unidentified persons in southern Kirkuk on Monday morning in a second copycat incident in less than a week, a local police official in the city said. “An armed group in a vehicle with an unknown number plate kidnapped a 17-year-old boy in the al-Nasr neighborhood, southern Kirkuk, while on his way to his preparatory school,” Col. Shirzad Muwaferi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The kidnapped boy is the son of a rich notable in the city. Watching him being kidnapped, a colleague of his tried to use his cell phone to report to the police but the gunmen snatched it away and escaped,” he added.


Mosul:
#1: Two civilians were killed and two others wounded when gunmen attacked a building in eastern Mosul city, a security source in Ninewa police said on Monday. “Unidentified gunmen raided a small building belonging to a power generator in al-Ikhaa neighborhood, eastern Mosul, and shot dead the owner and a friend of his and wounded two others before escaping to an unknown place,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A civilian man was wounded when an improvised explosive device went off east of Mosul city on Monday, according to a Ninewa police source. “The IED, which was attached to a civilian man’s vehicle, went off in the district of Bartala, (30 km) east of Mosul, leaving him wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Policemen defused an improvised explosive device planted on a roadside near a residential compound in western al-Ramadi city without incident on Monday, a local police source said. “Intelligence tip-offs led security forces to a roadside IED near a residential compound in western Ramadi. The area was sealed off from two directions as the bomb squad personnel defused the charge without incident,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Militant attacks killed six Pakistani security officers on Monday. Militants assaulted security officials in Toraware village overnight, killing two and wounding four in a three-hour shootout in the area some 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of South Waziristan, police officer Mir Chaman Khan said. Some 10 insurgents were believed to have been killed. In Bajur, a tribal region further north, Taliban fighters attacked a checkpoint at Matthak village, killing four security officials. Seven militants died in the clash, said Syed Ghulam Rasool, a local government official. The militants also attacked security check posts at Khar, the main town in Bajur, and Siddiqabad, an adjoining village, wounding at least three security personnel.

#2: The governor of Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province survived an assassination attempt on Monday which saw one of his attackers gunned down in a shoot-out, an official said.
Two gunmen armed with AK-47 machine guns and hand grenades carried out the attack at an information technology conference near the governor's office in the city of Jalalabad, said a provincial government spokesman. As Governor Gul Agha Sherzai arrived at the venue's entrance in his motorcade, one of the attackers dropped a hand grenade from a second-floor window, Ahmad Zai Abdulzai said. The provincial hospital told AFP that one policeman was also wounded in the attack.


MoD: Corporal James Oakland

DM: Sergeant Michael Ebert


The medias are occupied with reporting the aftermath of the bombings in Baghdad and the three choppers which crashed in Afghanistan so there seems to be little else being reported from those regions. Sorry I missed Saturday but after six years of working of our wars documentation I have learned to take a break from time to time to keep from going insane from over focus of the continuing stupidity of these undeclared wars.

0 comments: