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


Friday, January 8, 2010

War News for Friday, January 08, 2010

The Washington Post is reporting the death of an American soldier in a roadside bombing in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, January 7th.

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by the military. Spc. David A. Croft Jr died in an IED/small arms fire attack in Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, January 5th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded in Ameriyah neighborhood, west Baghdad, injuring six civilians.


Sinjar:
#1: “Two persons were killed and four others were wounded in a conflict between two Kurdish tribes in Sinjar district, north of Mosul,” the same source said.


Mosul:
#1: An Iraqi soldier was wounded when an improvised explosive device went off near his patrol in Mosul on Thursday, a local police source said. “The IED went off near a patrol of the Iraqi army’s 7th Brigade, 3rd Contingent, in 17 Tammuz neighborhood, western Mosul, leaving one soldier wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: In a separate incident, a police force from al-Qiyara, south of Mosul, defused an IED that was planted on a main road in the district without incident.

#3: “Clashes flared up on Friday morning (Jan. 8) between U.S. forces and gunmen on the Mosul-Baghdad road, south of Mosul, during which four gunmen were killed,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#4: A roadside bomb exploded targeting a police patrol in west Mosul injured two policemen.

#5: A parked car bomb exploded in Bartullah town, 10 miles east of Mosul, injuring four civilians.

#6: A gunman threw a grenade at a police vehicle in central Mosul injuring five people.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A blast apparently caused by a suicide vest stored in a house in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi killed eight suspected militants Friday. The explosion occurred in Baldia, a mostly ethnic Pashtun neighborhood where many militants are suspected to be hiding out, police Chief Wasim Ahmad told The Associated Press.

#2: Early Friday, a suicide bombing at a facility of the Ansarul-Islam militant group in the Khyber tribal region killed at least one person and wounded 11, local government official Farooq Khan said.


DoD: Spc. David A. Croft Jr

Posted by whisker at 3:56 AM

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