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, November 30, 2009

War News for Monday, November 30, 2009

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - South soldier of non-combat related injuries in an undisclosed location in Iraq on Sunday, November 29th.


Body of U.S. soldier found after 27 days in NW Afghanistan:

Taliban slaughters animals in suicide attacks :


Reported security incidents

Diyala Prv:
#1: Three persons of the same displaced family were wounded in an attack on their house in Diala province on Sunday, a local security source revealed. “An improvised explosive device (IED) went off near a house of a displaced family that has just returned to its original dwelling place in the area of Shahrban, Khanqin district, (45 km) east of Baaquba,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Two armed men riding a motorbike shot dead an employee of National Security Directorate (NSD) in Afghanistan's northern province of Jauzjan, provincial police chief Mohammad Khalil Aminzada said Monday. "The criminal incident occurred Sunday evening in Akcha district," Aminzada told Xinhua. However, he did not give the name of the victim but put the attack on Taliban militants.

#2: An Afghan official says six national policemen were killed and two others were injured when a rogue officer opened fire at a checkpoint in southwest Afghanistan. Nimroz province Police Chief Gen. Abdul Jabar Pardeli said Monday that the shootings occurred Sunday morning in Khash Rod district.

#3: Afghan officials said Sunday that 26 militants were killed in a gunbattle with border security guards along the Pakistan frontier. The Ministry of Interior said Sunday that the battle between militants and the border guards occurred Saturday night in the Gurbuz district of Khost province in eastern Afghanistan. The ministry says the bodies of 13 militants were recovered following the fighting. Air support was summoned to the area. No Afghan border security guards were killed in the violence, according to the ministry.

#4: NATO also reported that an Afghan woman was killed when she was struck by an international-forces vehicle in Kabul. In the pedestrian accident, the driver of the NATO vehicle stopped after hitting the woman and transported her and her son to a medical facility at the Kabul International Airport compound. Despite medical treatment, the woman died of severe trauma.

#5: At least four militants were killed in a military operation in northwest Pakistan's tribal areas on Monday, local TV channels reported. According to the Frontier Constabulary (FC) media cell, Pakistani security forces surrounded militants strongholds at Barain Khyber tribal agency, four militants killed and several others injured during clashes, the private TV Express reported.

Posted by whisker at 3:15 AM

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