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, March 13, 2010

War News for Saturday, March 13, 2010

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldiers in a roadside bombing in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, March 12th.


NATO accused of ‘covering up’ night raid that killed two pregnant women:

India to send 40 more commandos to Afghanistan:

Pakistan Army Digs In on Turf of the Taliban:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Five civilians were wounded in an improvised explosive device blast in southern Baghdad on Saturday, a local police source said. “An IED went off in al-Mechanic neighborhood, al-Dora district, southern Baghdad, leaving five civilians wounded and were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded 10 others in the Doura district of southern Baghdad, police said.

#2: A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol wounded two policemen in Ghazaliya District of western Baghdad, police said.


Samarra:
#1: Police found the decomposed remains of two people in western Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Mosul:
#1: Three gunmen were killed in a blast resulting from a car bomb they were planning to use for an attack west of Mosul on Saturday, according to a local police source. “The car bomb went off in Be’r Akla village, Rubaia’a suburb, in the district of Talafar, leaving the three gunmen who were planning an attack with the explosive vehicle dead,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A civilian man was killed in an attack by unidentified gunmen in western Mosul city on Saturday, a local police source in Ninewa said. “Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a civilian man in front of his house in the area of al-Harmat, western Mosul, killing him instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


#3: Gunman threw a hand grenade at Iraqi police patrol and wounded one civilian in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Tal Afar:
#1: Gunmen killed an off duty policeman near his house in Tal Afar, about 420 km (260 miles) northwest of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A remote-controlled bomb killed six Afghan civilians Saturday as they traveled in a central province, an official said. Insurgents detonated the explosives planted in a road as the civilians' vehicle passed by in Tirin Kot, capital of central Uruzgan province, according to Zemarai Bashary, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. One other civilian was wounded in the early morning blast, he said.

#2: A suicide bomber driving a motorized rickshaw blew himself up at a security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, officials said, killing at least 13 people, injuring 52 and underscoring the nation’s relentless security threat. Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem, a top military official for the region, said Saturday’s attack killed 13 people, including two soldiers and two policemen. The attacker, driving a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw, detonated explosives at a roadblock manned by soldiers and police Saturday morning in Saidu Sharif, the administrative capital of Swat, said police official Qazi Farooq.

#3: Eleven Taliban militants were killed as NATO-led aircraft pounded their hideouts in Zabul province south of Afghanistan, spokesman for provincial administration Mohammad Jan Rasoul said Saturday. "International troops dropped bombs on Taliban bastion in Shamonzai district Friday night killing 11 rebels," Rasoul told Xinhua.

#4: An anti-government militant was killed and another sustained injuries as a mine went off prematurely in Afghanistan's northwest Badghis province on Saturday, a press release of Interior Ministry said. "Two terrorists were busy in planting a mine on a road in Muqir district of Badghis province this morning but the device exploded pre-maturely killing one and wounding another," the press release added.

#5: Gun battle between security forces and Taliban fighters left four insurgents dead in Afghanistan's northern Faryab province, a private television channel broadcast Saturday. "Four anti-government militants were killed in Pashtunkot district of Faryab province last night," Tolo television reported in its news bulletin.


DoD: Lance Cpl. Garrett W. Gamble

Posted by whisker at 4:03 AM

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