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, April 14, 2010

War News for Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Iraq to establish 4th state oil company:

US forces leave Afghanistan's Korengal Valley:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen killed a Sunni cleric early Wednesday, spraying him with bullets outside a Baghdad mosque where he had just finished leading morning prayers, officials said.Sheik Ghazi Jabouri was gunned down in a hail of automatic-weapons fire outside the al-Rahman mosque in the primarily Sunni-neighborhood of Azamiyah in north Baghdad at about 5 a.m., a police officer said. An army officer confirmed the report.

#2: Elsewhere in the capital, a high-ranking police officer was killed when a so-called "sticky bomb" on his car exploded as he drove to work, an Interior Ministry official said.The official said that in addition to killing Brig. Gen. Arkan Ali, who served on the ministry's anti-terrorism force, the explosion in western Baghdad's al-Nisoor Square also injured four bystanders, a traffic policeman and another ministry official who was in the car.

#3: Another bomb exploded in Ali al-Saleh region, western Baghdad, injuring two persons,” he added.“The wounded were carried to nearby hospitals for treatment,” he noted.

#4: At least three people were wounded in a bomb explosion near a bridge in central Baghdad on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry source said. The blast took place at about 1:45 p.m. (1045 GMT) near the al- Ahrar bridge on the eastern bank of the Tigris River that bisects the Iraqi capital, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.


Basra:
#1: The body an unknown girl was found on Wednesday morning in central Basra city. “The corpse was found behind a school in al-Dhubat neighborhood, near the Military Hospital, central Basra,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said that the girl was killed with gunfire, and her dead body had been placed in a plastic bag.


Tikrit:
#1: Unknown gunmen on Wednesday opened fire targeting the house of a member of Salah al-Din’s Provincial Council. “The attack caused no casualties,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kirkuk:
#1: Multinational forces defused a bomb in southwest of Kirkuk on Tuesday, a source from the joint coordination center said. “A police patrol and soldiers of the 46th brigade of the Iraqi army found the bomb near Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayyar village in Riyadh district, 45 km west of Kirkuk,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “A force from the Riyadh police station rushed to the area with the multinational forces, who detonated the bomb without damage,” he added.

#2: The commander of Kirkuk’s Emergency police Brigadier Khatab Umar survived an assassination attempt on Wednesday. “A roadside bomb went off today at noon in central Kirkuk city targeting Brigadier Umar’s motorcade,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that the blast caused no casualties or damage to the motorcade.


Mosul:
#1: Iraqi army forces killed a gunman and arrested another one on Tuesday in eastern Mosul, a police source said. “An army force killed on Tuesday evening (April 13) a gunman and arrested another one after wounding him in al-Jazaer neighborhood in eastern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Unknown gunmen killed a civilian on Wednesday in front of his house in eastern Mosul city.
“The incident took place in the al-Quds (Jerusalem) neighborhood, eastern Mosul,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: An improvised explosive device went off in northern Ramadi without leaving casualties, a police source said on Tuesday. “The bomb exploded on a road in al-Jazeera region in northern Ramadi targeting a police vehicle patrol, without causing casualties,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol went off in Ramadi 100 km (62 miles) west of Baghdad, wounding three police officers, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Sayed Ismail Jahangir, spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province, said militants fired on Afghan police patrolling in Gelan district Tuesday night. Police chased a vehicle filled with insurgents to an area where more militants were lying in wait. The policeman and an insurgent were killed in a one-hour battle that followed.

#2: The governor's spokesman said the boy died last night in Ghazni's Andar district when he stumbled onto the roadside bomb on his way home.

#3: A gunman lying in wait shot and killed an 18-year-old woman as she left her job at a U.S.-based development company Tuesday, casting a spotlight on a stepped-up campaign of Taliban intimidation against women in this southern city where U.S. troops plan a major operation in the coming weeks. In Tuesday's attack, the gunman emerged from a hiding place and shot the woman, whose first name was Hossai, after she stepped out of her office building, said deputy police chief Fazle Ahmed Shehzad. Hossai died at the hospital, and the assailant escaped. Hossai worked for Development Alternatives Inc., a Washington-based global consulting firm that "provides social and economic development solutions to business, government, and civil society in developing and transitioning countries," according to its Web site.


DoD: Spc. Joseph T. Caron

DoD: Cpl. Michael D. Jankiewicz

2 comments:

Dancewater said...

Is the U.S. Army Losing Its War on Suicide?

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1981284,00.html#ixzz0l8KzEKS8

Dancewater said...

FEINGOLD, McGOVERN, JONES INTRODUCE LEGISLATION TO REQUIRE TIMETABLE FOR DEPLOYING U.S. TROOPS FROM AFGHANISTAN


http://feingold.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=323809