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, February 5, 2010

War News for Friday, February 05, 2010

NATO is reporting the death of an American soldiers in a roadside bombing in an unidentified area in western Afghanistan on Friday, February 5th.


Russia says killed top local al Qaeda militant:

Even Where Pakistani Law Exists, Taliban Find a Porous Border:

France: 80 more military trainers for Afghanistan:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Meanwhile, a bomb explosion hit eastern Baghdad Friday, killing at least one person and injuring 15 others, the source said.

#2: A local resident in western Baghdad was wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) attached to his house door went off on Thursday, according to the Baghdad Operations Command. “An IED attached to the door of a house belonging to a local resident in the area of Shohadaa Abu Meneiser, Abu Ghraib district, western Baghdad, went off, leaving the owner of the house wounded,” read a BOC statement as received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: Two Grad and surface-to-surface missiles and two launching pads were seized in the Abu Ghraib intersection in the western part of the Iraqi capital on Thursday, according to a statement by the Baghdad Operations Command (BOC).


Karbala:
#1: At least 27 people were killed and more than 60 others wounded on Friday in car bomb attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims in Iraq's southern holy city of Karbala. Two car bombs blew at the same time on a bridge named Wadil- Salam which is located east of Karbala, 80 km south of Baghdad, an Iraqi interior ministry source told Xinhua, without giving more details.

A mortar bomb attack on the last day of a major mourning ceremony in Iraq killed 31 Shi'ite pilgrims and wounded dozens more on Friday in an atrocity blamed on al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein loyalists. The bomb struck pilgrims who were leaving the holy shrine city of Karbala, 110 kilometres south of Baghdad, where more than a million devotees had gathered to mark the festival of Arbaeen. A provincial health ministry official gave the death toll and said 150 others were wounded. "A mortar round was launched from fields north-east of the city," provincial governor Amalheddin al-Hir told AFP.

Car bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims killed at least 27 people and wounded 75 others south of Baghdad on Friday, an Interior Ministry official said. Police said two bombs blew up in quick succession in Karbala, where the pilgrims had congregated at the shrine of Imam Hussein.


Tuz Khurmato:
#1: The body of a teacher was found in Touz Khormato on Thursday, just one day after he had been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen, a local security source said. “The body of the teacher who was kidnapped on Wednesday (Feb. 3) was found in Touz Khormato district, (100 km) northeast of Tikrit city,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The 38-year-old teacher had been kidnapped on the main road linking Touz Khormato to Soliman Bek area.


Mosul:
#1: Unidentified gunmen killed a civilian man right after stepping out of a mosque in al-Amil neighborhood, western Mosul, on Thursday, a local police source in Ninewa said. “The gunmen opened fire at the man after he performed the evening prayers, killing him instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Tal Afar:
#1: A Syrian gunman was killed on Friday in clashes between Iraqi forces and Arab gunmen near the Syrian borders in Ninewa, according to a security source. “Armed clashes flared up on Friday (Feb. 5) between Iraqi Special Forces (SWAT) and five Arab gunmen in Rabiaa region in Talafar, near the Syrian borders,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “Khaled Abu Fahd, a Syrian gunman, was killed in the clashes, while the rest of the gunmen managed to escape inside the Syrian territories,” he added.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A motorcycle bomb struck a crowd watching a dog fight Friday in southern Afghanistan, killing at least three people and wounding two dozen more. The blast on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province.

#2: NATO also said a helicopter contracted by coalition forces was hit by small-arms fire Friday in the eastern province of Kapisa.One person suffered minor wounds, but the helicopter suffered no significant damage and landed safely at a military base, the international force said in a statement.

#3: Police say a bomb has exploded outside a hospital in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi, wounding some people. The hospital in Karachi was treating many of the victims of a bombing earlier Friday targeting the city's minority Shiite Muslim community that killed 12 and wounded close to 50. Police official Azeem Ahmad says the bomb was apparently in or close to an ambulance outside the emergency ward at Jinnah Hospital.


It's a slow news day except for the Karbala blasts and the dog fight bombing, (was there a Michael Vick sighting?) Anyway I'm not bitching -- whisker.

Posted by whisker at 2:48 AM

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