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


Wednesday, January 13, 2010

War News for Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Haitians wait for daylight for full look at quake devastation


The Washington Post is reporting the deaths of two American soldiers in an "explosion" (IED) in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan on Wednesday, January 13th. Wow NATO finally has a release for someone killed....

The French DM is reporting the death of a French soldier in an IED attack in the Mahmud Raqi region of eastern Afghanistan (on a road linking the Nijrab and Bagram military bases) on Wednesday, January 12th. Two additional soldiers were wounded in the attack.


Jan. 9 airpower summary: Jan. 10 airpower summary: Jan. 11 airpower summary:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: One civilian was killed and two others were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in west of Baghdad. “The bomb, placed near a house in Tesaa Bayar neighborhood in central Abu Gharieb, west of Baghdad, went off on Wednesday (Jan. 13), killing a civilian and injuring two,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A roadside bomb wounded two civilians when it exploded near a passing car in eastern Baghdad, police said


Diyala Prv:
#1: Unknown gunman shot dead a civilian and wounded another in the morning in the Ameen district in northern the provincial capital city Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

#2: Separately, an Iraqi soldier was wounded at dawn by a sniper shot while manning a checkpoint in the town of Sa'diyah, some 130 km northeast of Baghdad, the source said.

#3: Also in the province, three passengers, two of them were soldiers, were wounded in a traffic accident in central the city of Baquba in the morning, he said.

#4: Meanwhile, the Iraqi security forces also arrested eight peopleand defused three roadside bombs in different parts of the province during the day, he added.


Basra:
#1: One civilian was killed and another one was wounded in a hand grenade explosion in western Basra on Tuesday, a police source said. “The hand grenade exploded inside a house al-Qebla region in western Basra when a worker attempted to hold it,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Amarra:
#1: The headquarters (HQ) of Missan’s emergency contingents was hit with a Katyusha rocket on Tuesday, without leaving any casualties. “The attack left only damages to the headquarter, 5 km south of Amara city,” Col. Sadeq al-Hilo, the Missan police deputy director, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said that police patrols defused another Katyusha rocket within the same area, which also targeted the contingents’ HQ.


Mosul:
#1: A Katyusha rocket landed on Tuesday in southern Mosul, leaving no casualties, a security source said. “The rocket landed on Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 12) on a house in al-Mansour neighborhood in southern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The blast caused no casualties, but damaged the house,” he added.


An Arbar Prv:
#1: A suicide bomber blew up a truck near a police station in Iraq's western Anbar province on Wednesday, killing seven people and wounding six, police said. The bomber struck in the centre of the town of Saqlawiya, just north of Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad. A water tanker truck exploded near the gates of the police station, near a municipal government building, police spokesman Mohammed Jassim said. Two of those killed and four of the wounded were police officers and the rest were civilians, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Two children were killed and five others were injured in a blast in NWFP town of Tank on Wednesday, police said. According to the sources the children were playing in a ground, where they found a hand grenade and while playing with the device it went off killing two children on the spot, while five others were injured in the explosion. The relief teams reached to the spot and the injured were being transferred to local hospital.

#2: In Khost city, members of the Afghan National Army found two explosives, said Amir Hassan, a spokesman for the police chief in Khost province near the Pakistan border. He said the soldiers detonated one and removed the other, which subsequently exploded. The four soldiers and a civilian died in the morning blast just outside a police barracks, he said.

#3: In southern Afghanistan, three members of the national police force and three civilians were wounded when a suicide bomber in a truck detonated his explosives near a police office in the Daman district of Kandahar province, according to the Ministry of Interior. Three vehicles, including an ambulance, were damaged in the blast.

#4: And in Ghazni province, six Afghan policemen were injured when a remove-controlled bomb exploded near an international aid office, said Abdul Ghani, deputy police chief in Ghanzi province of eastern Afghanistan.

#5: The Ministry of Defense on Wednesday reported that the body of an Afghan National Army soldier, who was kidnapped on Monday by militants from his house in Baghlan province, was found Tuesday in the Dushi district of the province in northern Afghanistan. The soldier was stationed in Khost district.


MoD: Captain Daniel Read

DoD: Pfc. Michael R. Jarrett

0 comments: