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


Monday, May 3, 2010

War News for Monday, May 03, 2010

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier in an IED attack in Sangin, Helmand Province, Afghanistan on Sunday, May 2nd. Here's the ISAF statement.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier an "an attack" in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, May 2nd. We believe this to be an American.

NATO is reporting the death of another ISAF soldier in an indirect-fire attack somewhere in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, May 1st.


German troops face pitched battles in Afghanistan as insurgency spreads:

Iraq begins Baghdad vote recount requested by PM:


Reported security incidents

Tikrit:
#1: Two policemen were killed and four civilians were wounded when a car bomb went off on Monday north of Tikrit city. “The blast targeted the motorcade of a high ranking police officer, 100 km north of Tikrit,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Salah al-Din Prv:
#1: In a separate incident, an Iraqi soldier and a police officer were killed while walking along a road when a remotely controlled bomb exploded in a parked car in the province of Salah al-Din, security forces said.


Toz:
#1: An unidentified group of gunmen attacked two employees of the court of first instance in Toz, just south of the city Kirkuk, leaving one dead and the other injured.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: One civilian was wounded when a roadside bomb went off on Monday in central Ramadi city. “The blast occurred near a restaurant in central Ramadi,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A roadside bomb went off on Monday near the Old Cemetery in Ramadi city. “The blast left no casualties,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A suicide bomber has struck a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan, the same location where the US intelligence agency suffered the deadliest attack in its history several months ago. The blast happened outside Camp Chapman, in Khost province. One civilian was killed and two security guards were wounded on Monday when a car laden with explosives exploded outside the base, Afghan authorities said.

#2: Eight Norwegian soldiers serving with NATO's International Security Assistance Force were injured, two of them seriously, in an attack in northern Afghanistan, the Norwegian military said on Monday. The Norwegian troops had been heading to meet Afghan security forces in the northern Ghormach district Sunday afternoon when they came under attack, and a six-hour firefight ensued, the military said. "The two seriously injured soldiers are being treated at a German field hospital in Mazar-i-Sharif. We think their lives are no longer in danger, but they suffered very serious wounds," Lieutenant Colonel John Espen Lien, a military spokesman, said. The attackers also slightly wounded six other Norwegian troops with bullets and shrapnel. The Norwegian soldiers finally managed to withdraw when they received reinforcements and air support.

#3: In a separate event eight civilians, two of them children, were killed and 14 more wounded after a roadside bomb struck a minivan in the east of the country, police and a doctor said. The victims were among a group of people travelling in Paktia province late Sunday when the bomb exploded, deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Dastagir Rustamyar told AFP. "Yesterday evening along the road to Zurmat a civilian minivan struck a roadside bomb, as a result of which eight civilians were killed," he said.

#4: Helicopter gunships bombed Taliban hideouts in Orakzai Agency on Sunday, killing 21 terrorists and injuring 29 others, while seven hideouts were also destroyed in the airstrikes. Sources said helicopter gunships shelled Taliban hideouts in Kool area of Upper Orakzai, killing eight Taliban and injuring 25 others, while three hideouts were also destroyed. The sources said the helicopters also pounded Taliban hideouts at Ghilju, Ghundaki and Khadezai areas, killing 13 Taliban and injuring four others, as four hideouts were destroyed in the attack. Meanwhile, according to AP news agency, government official Samiullah Khan said the hideouts hit were in the Dabori area and its neighbouring villages of Orakzai. He added the aerial strikes also destroyed six Taliban compounds.

#5: Intelligence officials say suspected U.S. missiles have killed four alleged militants in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border. The three missiles were fired minutes apart at a moving vehicle in the Marsi Khel area in North Waziristan.


DoD: 1st Lt. Salvatore S. Corma

11 comments:

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Anonymous said...

German hitch-hikers are fighting the first pitched battles witnessed by the Bundeswehr since 1945 in the face of a growing Taleban insurgency in the north of Afghanistan.

Gay has deteriorated in areas such as Badghis province in the northwest, Kunduz, Baghlan and some parts of Takhar and Badakhshan provinces.

Anonymous said...

Colin Smith wrote:
What the hell are we doing in Afghanistan?
Just bring them all home and be done with the nonsense.

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tahir said...

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