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 20, 2010

War News for Saturday, March 20, 2010

MNF-Iraq (OIF) is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Center in combat operations in an undisclosed location in Baghdad, Iraq on Thursday, March 18th.


7th anniversary of Iraq War passes, little noticed:

U.S. Frees Detainees, but Afghans’ Anger Persists:

Taliban Arrests Have Halted Early Talks, Former Envoy Says:


Reported security incidents

Diyala Prv:
#1: At least two people were killed and another one wounded in an armed attack today at dawn in Al Nada village, Diyala. Gunmen attached the village and opened fire on civilians killing two people and wounding a third one, sources said.

#2: In Diyala, a police patrol found a bullet-riddled body in Al Saadiya District, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Government aircraft attacked militant hideouts in the ethnic Pashtun-dominated northwestern region of Orakzai, killing at least 10 insurgents, political and military officials said. Thirteen militants were killed in similar strikes on Friday.

#2: Three paramilitary soldiers were wounded when a mortar bomb believed to have been fired by militants struck a security checkpoint in Mohmand, government and hospital officials said.

#3: Gunmen shot dead three Shi'ite Muslims in an apparent sectarian attack in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, police said

#4: At least 14 militants were killed in a fire exchange between Taliban and local residents in northwest Pakistan's Kurram tribal agency, local sources said Saturday. armed militants attacked the residence of Peace Committee members working against Taliban Friday night. In the attack two persons including a woman died and three other committee members got injured.
In counter attack from Peace Committee 14 militants were killed and seven others injured. The situation is much tensed in the area.

#5: The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) shot at a motorcyclist in western Herat province and the man succumbed to his injuries in a nearby hospital, police said Saturday. "NATO-led forces possibly Spanish soldiers opened fire on a motorcyclist Friday afternoon injuring him and he died due to his injuries in hospital," Deputy to provincial police chief Dilawar Shah Dilawar told Xinhua. The incident, he added, occurred in Shidai area outside Herat provincial capital of the Herat city.

4 comments:

Dancewater said...

It's a beautiful day to protest!

Cervantes said...

Here's info on the KIA:

A Kenosha solider was killed this past Thursday in Iraq. Department of Defense agents said a rocket propelled grenade struck a watch tower while Spc. Robert Rieckhoff, 26, was on guard duty. . . . Rieckhoff is survived by a son and daughter who live in Tennessee with their mother.

Dancewater said...

GOP Congressmen: "Everyone would agree Iraq was a mistake"

even years ago today, the United States and its allies launched “Operation Iraqi Freedom” “to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people,” as President Bush described it.

We now know that there were no WMDs, and that Hussein’s “support for terrorism” was largely a figment of imagination concocted by the Bush administration to justify an invasion that the American people might otherwise not have supported. So the war achieved only the third of Bush’s goals, handing the Iraqi people a freedom that it is now up to them to sustain.

Last week, at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, three Republican congressmen were interviewed by Grover Norquist. Maybe it was the friendly, nonconfrontational setting, but for whatever reason the congressmen were remarkably frank about the events of seven years ago and how they and their colleagues now view the war.

According to U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, (R-Ca.) and U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Ca.), all of their colleagues in the House Republican Caucus now believe that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake.


http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2010/03/20/gop-congressmen-everyone-would-agree-iraq-was-a-mistake/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_bookman_blog

_+++++++

It wasn't a mistake -- they did it on purpose.

Dancewater said...

Lovely day to protest here in DC! And I saw something I never thought I would see: a US police officer drop a US flag on the ground and then not pick it up - right in front of the White House!

Let's hear it for flag desecration!