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, May 14, 2010

War News for Friday, May 14, 2010

The DND/CF is reporting the death of a Canadian ISAF soldier in an IED attack in the Panjwayi district, approximately 15 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on Thursday, May 13th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier during an unidentified attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, May 14th.


New al-Qaida in Iraq chief vows blood-soaked days:

Protesters say NATO attack killed Afghan civilians:

Despite political uncertainties in Iraq, U.S. sticking with drawdown plan:

14 US troops receive German medals for bravery:

U.S. should listen to Afghan people's opinion: Wali Karzai:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: During Monday's attacks, violence in Baghdad consisted mainly of early morning strikes against security checkpoints that killed nearly a dozen police and military officials.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Two brothers were killed after they came under fire by suspected gunmen belonging to Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) who had set up a fake checkpoint north of Baaquba city, a security official in Diala said on Thursday. “The gunmen laid a fake checkpoint on the main road in al-Adhim district, (70 km) north of Baaquba, which links Diala to Kirkuk, and opened fire at two brothers, killing them instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Sulaimaniyah Prv:
#1: Iraqi border guards exchanged fire with Iranian troops along the two countries’ border yesterday, the first major incident between the two since Iran took over a disputed oil well in December. An Iraqi officer was captured by the Islamic Republic’s forces in the 90-minute gunfight on the border with Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, which was apparently sparked when Iranian troops mistook Iraqi soldiers for a Kurdish rebel group. “Iranian forces thought that the border guards belonged to PJAK (the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan – an Iranian Kurdish rebel group) and started to open fire,” Brigadier General Ahmed Gharib Diskara, the head of Iraq’s border guards in Sulaimaniyah province, told reporters.


Kirkuk:
#1: Two soldiers were wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack that targeted their patrol southwest of Kirkuk on Thursday, a source from the city’s Joint Coordination Center (JCC) said. “An IED went off near an Iraqi army patrol not very far from al-Rifaiya village, al-Rashad district, (35 km) southwest of Kirkuk, leaving two servicemen wounded and causing severe damage to their vehicle,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: Five people, including a police officer, were wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in southern Mosul city on Thursday, a local security source in Ninewa said. “An IED attached to the vehicle of a police officer went off in Wadi Hajar area, southern Mosul, leaving him severely wounded along with four civilians others who happened to be near the blast scene,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The federal police officer, in the rank of First Lieutenant, was wounded severely that one of his legs had to be amputated,” he added, not revealing further details.

#2: Unidentified gunmen blew up the house of an employee in the Mosul provincial council on Thursday, according to a security source in Ninewa. “Unidentified gunmen detonated a house owned by an employee working for the Ninewa provincial council in al-Amrin village, Hammam al-Aleel district, southern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: A suicide car bomber targeted a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol on the main road from Baghdad to Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of the capital, wounding three Iraqis, including a policeman, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Police forces defused on Friday four bombs in western Anbar, a media source of the Anbar police said. “Anti-explosives experts managed on Friday (May 14) to defuse four roadside bombs in central al-Ratba district, western Anbar, without damage,” Major Raheem Zubn told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.




Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Also Friday, NATO said at least nine insurgents were killed the previous night during a pursuit of suspected militants in a rural area in the Tarnak Wa Jaldak district of eastern Zabul province.

#2: NATO forces on Thursday attacked Mangotai, an area bordering Afghanistan in North Waziristan Agency, killing 10 tribesmen. Sources said NATO forces heavily shelled the area which resulted in death of 10 tribal people. The incident has been confirmed by local security sources also. It has also been learnt that two NATO soldiers were also killed when the tribesmen retaliated. The sources also confirmed another border violation by Nato forces at another place along the border with Afghanistan.


DoD: Sgt. Donald J. Lamar II

DoD: Sgt. Joshua D. Desforges

DND/CF: Private Kevin Thomas McKay

5 comments:

Cervantes said...

Double suicide bomb attack on a soccer stadium in Tal Afar kills at least 25, injures 100.

Dancewater said...

An Iraqi child tells what it is like to be BOMBED BY BUSH:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klhIFBks_yY

Dancewater said...

Let’s Rejoice in Terror’s Benefits!

By John Kirby

May 14, 2010 "Providence Journal" -- On May 6, The New York Post ran the following story on its front page: “THANKS, FAISAL! Inept terror thug saves 900 cop jobs”

“That’s how many cops were going to be cut before Faisal’s botched bid at Times Square terror. His effort prompted the city to restore $55 million to the NYPD, saving those jobs and making New York a safer place.”

Though The Post didn’t mention it, Faisal wasn’t able to save 6,700 teaching jobs, 75 senior centers, 20 fire companies, nurses in elementary schools, and an unknown number of day-care centers and other programs for children, due to be cut by Mayor Bloomberg this year.

But this still seems like a good time to pause and reflect on all the blessings we have received from Terror and the war thereon.

Here is the short list of “thank you’s” I’d like to see from other terror beneficiaries who have plenty of reason to be grateful:

• A much-belated "God Bless You!" from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who on Sept. 10, 2001, announced that the Pentagon had “misplaced” $2.3 trillion.

“Thanks, Osama! Your timing couldn’t have been better if I had planned it myself! In the chaos that followed, no one ever asked about all that money — and they still haven’t!”

• A big high-five from Larry Silverstein, who took possession of the twin towers just two months before the attacks and who collected $4.55 billion in insurance money for World Trade Center’s One and Two and $861 million for the third building to collapse that day, World Trade Center Seven. (For those who may have forgotten or never known, WTC 7 was not hit by a plane, had only minor damage and had just a few small fires burning inside it when it mysteriously collapsed into its own footprint around 5:20 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2001.)

“Thank you so much! I know I’m only a small investor in this Terror thing, but I’m truly grateful for whatever crumbs that fall from the Big Terror table!”

• Here’s a heartfelt salute from the senior officers of our Armed Forces, who had run clean out of enemies by the turn of the millennium:

“Thank you, Terror! When Soviet Communism collapsed, our whole reason for being collapsed with it. This wonderful, permanent war against ‘fear itself’ has a lot more juice than the War on Pinkos ever had! We have the largest military empire the world has ever seen, and we owe at least half of it to you!"

• A hearty handshake from the shareholders and chief executive officers of Raytheon, McDonnell-Douglas, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing and the countless junior members in good standing of the Military-Industrial Complex:

“To al-Qaida, Pakistani intelligence, and the CIA: Many thanks! Your inflated threats and geopolitical tinkering have meant inflated profits for us! And thanks, of course, to the taxpayers of America. The buck starts with you!"

• And here’s a special thank you from the National Security State as a whole to the American people: “Thanks for swallowing what is so clearly a fairy tale (spiced up with real death!). It’s been so great for us, and incidentally has kept the public very safe (give or take a few teachers, children’s programs and innocent bystanders).

Thanks, Terror! If you didn’t exist, we’d have to invent you!

© 2010 The Providence Journal

Dancewater said...

If they are not 'inventing' them, they sure are doing their best to create more of them:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25441.htm

Dancewater said...

Top general: It's a draw in Afghanistan

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan says the war is a draw.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal says the momentum of the resurgent Taliban militants has been stopped. But for now, the general says, nobody is winning.

In an interview Thursday on PBS' "NewsHour," McChrystal says he sees significant progress for the allies fighting the Taliban this year.

McChrystal says the insurgency remains serious, with a reach that spans the country and a large number of fighters.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/13/1944168/top-general-its-a-draw-in-afghanistan.html#ixzz0nxVIyjwH