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


Tuesday, April 20, 2010

War News for Tuesday, April 20, 2010

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a United States Division-South soldier from non-combat-related injuries in an undisclosed location in Iraq on Sunday, April 18th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an "explosion" at an Afghan National Army facility in Kabul Province, Afghanistan on Monday, April 19th. Several other soldiers were wounded in the incident.


Iraq's oil exports dip in March by 11 percent:

Russia to tell NATO if it will supply choppers to Afghanistan:

Bajaur declared conflict-free zone:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In Baghdad, three roadside bombs targeted U.S. military convoys on main roads in Khadraa district of western Baghdad in the early morning, the source added. But it is not immediately known whether the U.S. troops sustained any casualty.

#2: In a separate incident, a makeshift bomb detonated in New Baghdad neighborhood in east of the capital, wounding two civilians, said the source.

#3: A roadside bomb wounded two civilians when it exploded near a police patrol in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, police said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Two civilians were killed and two others were wounded in a bomb explosion in north of Baaquba, a security source said on Monday. “An improvised explosive device went off near a civilian car in al-Azeem district, north of Baaquba, killing two civilians and injuring two more, all from the same family,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Diwaniya:
#1: Two rockets fell on the U.S.-run Camp Echo in western Diwaniya province on Monday, according to a military source. “Two rockets landed at 8:00pm on Monday (April 19) on the Echo Camp in western Diwaniya,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The two rockets were launched from a region between al-Saniya, north of Diwaniya, and al-Daghara, northeast of Diwaniya,” he added.


Mahmudiya:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded inside a marketplace in Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, wounding six civilians, police said.


Tarmiyah:
#1: In one incident north of Baghdad, gunmen stormed into the home of a member of a Sunni group that joined forces with the Americans to fight al-Qaida in Iraq, killing his wife, his 22-year-old daughter, and his three other children ages 8 to 12, a police officer said. The member of the local Sahwa, or Awakening Council, was working a shift at a nearby checkpoint and discovered the bodies when he returned to his home in Tarmiyah, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baghdad, the officer said. An Interior Ministry official confirmed the deaths.


Kirkuk:
#1: In Kirkuk, a high-ranking police officer survived an attack targeting his patrol as he was not in the vehicle when the explosive device went off, a source in Kirkuk police told dpa. Two of his security staff were injured.

#2: One policeman was seriously wounded on Tuesday when he came under gunmen’s fire in central Kirkuk city. “The gunmen were driving in a vehicle when they opened fire on a police patrol in central Kirkuk,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that one of the patrol’s personnel was seriously injured in his head.


Ninevah Prv:
#1: In a joint morning raid, U.S. and Iraqi forces acting on intelligence information killed suspected insurgent leader Ahmed al-Obeidi in the northern province of Ninevah, Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said.

#2: Security forces in Ninewa province on Monday found two unknown dead bodies. “The two corpses were admitted to the morgue in Mosul city,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He explained that signs of bullets were found on the two bodies’ heads and chests


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Elsewhere, a police colonel and his driver were killed by a roadside bomb in the western city of Hit, while seven other policemen and four civilians were injured in bombings in Ramadi and Baghdad, according to police officers in the cities.

#2: Another blast in al-Tamim area, southern Ramadi, left four policemen injured, the source added.

#3: In the central Falluja area of al-Mohamadiya, a blast targeting another police patrol left two civilians injured.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A provincial government official said Tuesday that NATO forces shot dead four Afghan civilians, but NATO said those killed were Taliban militants and their associates. The incident happened roughly 1 kilometre south of Khost city, the capital of the south-eastern province of Khost on Monday night, Mubarez Mohammad Zadran, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told the German Press Agency dpa. He said all the deceased were civilians, who were driving in a vehicle that failed to stop at military checkpoint. "We condemn the attack," he said. However, NATO said in a statement that two of the dead people were "known insurgents" and the other two were their associates. A vehicle approached a military convoy and did not stop despite warning shots, it said, adding, "Several rounds were fired in an attempt to disable the vehicle, and finally shots were fired into the vehicle itself."

#2: Separately, a bomb strapped to a bicycle was detonated in the centre of Khost city close to the main police headquarters on Tuesday, causing no death or damage, Zadran said.

#3: Unidentified armed men have killed the deputy mayor of Afghanistan's restive southern city of Kandahar while he was at a mosque, taking part in evening prayer. Gunmen entered the mosque and shot Azizullah Yarmal while he and dozens of others were praying during services on Monday night, a Press TV correspondent reported.

#4: Eight employees of a construction company went missing in Kunduz province north of Afghanistan Tuesday, spokesman for provincial administration said and accused Taliban militants for their abduction. "Taliban militants abducted eight employees of a local construction company this morning from Omar Khil area in Ali Abad district," Mahboubullah Saydi told Xinhua. One of the abductees is a Pakistani engineer and the remaining seven including an engineer and a driver are Afghans, he stressed.

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