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, October 31, 2009

War News for Saturday, October 31, 2009

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division–Baghdad Soldier from a non-combat related vehicle accident in an undisclosed location in Iraq on Friday, October 30th.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division-South from non-combat related injuries in an undisclosed location in Iraq on Friday, October 30th.

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by the military. Spc. Robert K. Charlton died at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center on Tuesday, October 27th, from a non-combat related incident in Wardak, Afghanistan, on Friday, October 23rd.

The DND/CF is reporting the death of a Canadian ISAF soldier in an IED attack 10 km south-west of Kandahar City, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on Friday, October 30th. No other soldiers were injured in this incident.


1000 US troops wounded in Afghanistan in 3 months: report

Navy ship accidentally fires on Polish port:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: An improvised explosive device attached to a passenger vehicle went off in central Baghdad on Saturday, leaving six civilians wounded, an Iraqi police source said. “Six civilians were wounded when an IED attached to a passenger vehicle went off at Damash area, on the al-Muthanna airport road, central Baghdad, today (Oct. 31),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A bomb attached to a car killed an employee of the Justice Ministry and wounded three people in south Baghdad's Saidiya district on Friday, police said.


Youssifiyah:
#1: Three civilians and one soldier were injured when a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Al Youssifiyah town south of Baghdad on Friday.


Shurqat:
#1: Police patrols on Friday found the body of an unidentified young man in a remote farmland in al-Shurqat district, according to a local administration source in Salah al-Din. “The body, of a young man in his mid-20s showed signs of having been slain at throat by a knife. The policemen found it in a remote plantation area near a spot where cattle are sold in the area of al-Shurqat,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Tal Afar:
#1: A magnetic bomb stuck to the car of an off-duty policeman exploded killing the policeman in Tel Afar west of Mosul.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Suspected Taliban militants set off a roadside bomb that killed seven paramilitary soldiers Saturday in a rugged tribal region of northwestern Pakistan. On Saturday, the paramilitary soldiers were traveling through the Khyber region, famed for the pass that is the main route for ferrying supplies to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, when the bomb went off, said local official Ghulam Farooq Khan. The men died before they reached a hospital.

#2: Pakistani jets bombed three hideouts of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud in the Orkazai tribal region, killing at least eight militants and wounding several others, intelligence officials said. Another airstrike, about 43 miles (70 kilometers) from the first one and near the Afghan border, killed seven militants in the Kurram tribal region, the officials said.

#3: Three Afghan police sustained injuries as a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in Taliban birthplace Kandahar in south Afghanistan, provincial police chief Sardar Mohammad Zazi said Saturday. "The gruesome incident took place Friday on the way to Kandahar airport wounding three policemen," Zazi told Xinhua.


DoD: Spc. Robert K. Charlton

DoD: Spc. Joseph L. Gallegos

DND/CF: Sapper Steven Marshall

Posted by whisker at 5:07 AM

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