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 17, 2010

War News for Monday, May 17, 2010

The Italian Defense Ministry is reporting the deaths of two Italian ISAF soldiers in a roadside bombing 25km south of Bala Murghab, Haret province, Afghanistan on Monday, May 17th. Two additional soldiers were wounded in the attack.


MILITARY: Marines expanding their Afghanistan combat territory:

Taliban Hold Sway in Area Taken by U.S., Farmers Say:


Reported security incidents

Diyala Prv:
#1: Unknown gunmen slaughtered a cleric northeast of Baaquba city on Monday . “The armed men broke into the cleric’s house, stabbed him, and cut his head and then hanged it on a nearby electricity column,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Police forces defused on Monday a roadside bomb north of Baaquba city. “The bomb was planted on a main road, 55 km north of Baaquba,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A local official at the district of Falluja city was wounded on Monday when unknown gunmen opened fire to assassinate him.

#2: A roadside bomb hit on Monday an Iraqi army patrol east of Falluja city. “The blast occurred 18 km east of Falluja,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He did not mention further details, but noted that the blast caused only some damage to one of the patrol’s vehicles.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: An Afghan passenger plane carrying 44 people, including six foreigners, on a domestic flight crashed Monday near the Salang Pass north of the capital, officials said. There was no immediate word on casualties. Rescuers were on their way to the crash site near the 3,800-metre-high Salang Pass, a major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north. Airport police Chief Mohammad Asif Jabar Khil said the Pamir Airways plane went down about 100 kilometres from Kabul. Raz Mohammad Alami, deputy transportation minister who was travelling to the crash site with the minister of aviation and other officials, said the plane was carrying 44 people, including six foreigners and six crew members.

#2: An influential Muslim cleric, his brother and a driver were killed in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan, authorities said Monday. Gul Rahman and the two men were killed Sunday evening, said Edress Gharwal, governor spokesman for Kunar province. Rahman is an ex-Islamic Party member and influential in the province. He joined the government and was instrumental in pushing for peace and stability in the country through a reconciliation program.

#3: Taliban militants attacked a security checkpost in a restive northwestern Pakistani region on Monday, sparking clashes in which 19 insurgents and one soldier were killed, officials said. The fighting took place in Orakzai, an ethnic Pashtun tribal region where security forces have stepped up operations against militants in recent months. “They targeted three different locations in Orakzai and were using rockets and other heavy weapons,” the official said.“Troops retaliated effectively and killed eight militants. Reports from the area said troops arrested three injured militants,” the official added. Another security official said militants attacked in the village of Stoorikhel, where troops were establishing a new checkpoint, and launched two more attacks on military positions in the villages of Daboori and Anjani. “Troops used artillery to pound militant hideouts,” the official added.

#4: Separately, eight militants were killed and four paramilitary soldiers were wounded in overnight clashes in a nearby area, another government official said.

#5: THREE Australian special forces soldiers have been wounded in a roadside bomb blast in southern Afghanistan. They have been admitted to hospital in Kandahar but their condition is described as satisfactory and they are expected to return to duty. Defence force chief Angus Houston said improvised explosive devices (IEDs) remained a persistent threat with 48 such incidents involving Australian troops between November last year and April. "Over the weekend, a device was activated by a Bushmaster-protected mobility vehicle and three Australian soldiers were wounded," he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

#6: Three suicide bombers launched a coordinated assault on a police headquarters in southern Afghanistan overnight, damaging the compound and sparking a gun battle, officials said Monday. The attack underscored the growing threat posed by the Taliban in Kandahar, their spiritual home and the focus of a US-led push to beat back a nine-year insurgency in a bid to allow American forces to start withdrawing next year. The first suicide attacker detonated a motorcycle rigged into a bomb outside the border police compound in the city, destroying the outer wall of the compound, said senior police official Mohammad Ashraf Gharzai. Two other suicide attackers then ran into the compound after the blast and opened fire on border policemen in the building, said Gharzai. "After a 40-minute gun battle both suicide attackers were shot and the explosives strapped to their bodies went off," Gharzai told AFP, adding that he had been at the compound when the attacks took place. "Only four policemen were slightly wounded," he added.

#7: Two explosions in southern Afghanistan on Sunday killed eight civilians, including three children, the interior ministry said. The children were killed in a blast next to local shop in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province and the five other civilians when their vehicle drove over a roadside bomb in the Chora district of neighbouring Uruzgan province.


DoD: Spc. Denis D. Kisseloff

DM Sergeant Ramadu Maximillian

DM Corporal Major Pascazio Louis

11 comments:

thewiz said...

Yesterday's Quote of the Day had several issues that need to be dealt with. I shall start with the most important.

In the preamble to the QOTD, C said " For the record, I do not believe there is any realistic possibility of restoration of the Caliphate. -- C"

With all due respect C, it doesn't matter what you believe. And even though I agree that restoring the caliphate is highly unlikely, it doesn't matter what I think either.

What matters is what they believe. . .. and they believe it will be done for it is Allah's will. And if you were to read the writings of Zawahiri, they even have a 25 yr plan laid out.

What really matters is that they believe it, therefore they act on it.

Cervantes said...

Yep, that's true -- but it's a really tiny fringe group of wackos, comparable to the Christian dominionist movement (to which Sarah Palin belongs, BTW).

Dancewater said...

story on how war and occupation tears families apart:

Amal and Her Children

Since I have returned home I have not forgotten her or any of the dozens of people I met during my brief time in Syria. In the intervening year and a half several families have been relocated to the United States where the struggle to survive in a strange land (amidst an economic downturn) continues. Many more are still waiting. Their story remains untold.

I am disheartened and angry that our country can continue funding death and destruction at the astronomical rate of 5.5 billion dollars a month ($5,500,000,000) for the occupation of Iraq and 6.7 billion dollars a month ($6,700,000,000) for the war in Afghanistan and leave the people that have suffered from our actions (which we claim are in their best interests) to fend for themselves.

http://www.counterpunch.org/barber05172010.html

Cervantes said...

You can use anchor tags in blogger comments, BTW.

Dancewater said...

Cleric who criticised Qaeda beheaded in north Iraq


BAGHDAD, May 17 (Reuters) - Gunmen wearing Iraqi military uniforms beheaded an imam who had recently criticised al Qaeda and hung his head on an electricity pole in his village in northern Diyala province on Monday, police said.

The dead man was Sheikh Abdullah Shakoor al-Salhy, the imam of Saadiya village, about 150 km (90 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.

"Gunmen wearing military uniforms raided our house early this morning to search it. They held us in a room and asked my father to show them the other rooms of the house," Muhammed Abdullah, the cleric's son, said. Abdullah said the family did not realise his father had been killed until the four attackers left the house.

Salhy had criticised al Qaeda in a speech at the local mosque last Friday.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ALS735617.htm

+++++++

looks like the Iraqi military is part of al Qaeda in Iraq

Dancewater said...

Civilian casualties are making Afghans very angry

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1989528,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

[I have forgotten - years ago - how to embed links. sorry]

Dancewater said...

17,000 Japanese circle US base in peaceful protest

http://wire.antiwar.com/2010/05/16/17000-japanese-circle-us-base-in-peaceful-protest/

Cervantes said...

<a href="URL of link">text you want clickable</a>

Dancewater said...

Afghan prosecutor issues arrest warrant for US army officer

Dancewater said...

Aiding the Insurgency in Iraq

Anonymous said...
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