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


Saturday, July 17, 2010

War News for Saturday, July 17, 2010

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF Marine from an IED attack in the Sangin District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan on Friday, July 16th.

The British MoD is reporting another death of a British ISAF soldier from an IED attack in the Nahr-e Saraj District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan of Saturday, July 17th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier in an IED strike in an unidentified location on eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, July 17th.


8 Turks Wounded in Kurdish Rocket Attack

1 Bangladeshi victim of Iraq fire identified

A look at the costs of Afghan war to U.S. taxpayers


Reported security incidents

Kirkuk:
#1: Two people were killed and three injured in a car bomb blast in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Saturday, police said. The bomb was attached to the car of a Kurdish family, according to a police source told the German Press Agency dpa. The explosion took place south of the city, which lies some 250 kilometres north of the capital Baghdad.


Mosul:
#1: Three Iraqi army soldiers and one civilian were wounded on Saturday in two separate blasts northern and western Mosul city. “A roadside bomb went off today in the al-Baladiyat neighborhood, northern Mosul, targeting an Iraqi army patrol, wounding two soldiers and one civilian who was nearby the blast’s location,” a security source from the Ninewa province told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: “Another roadside bomb went off today at the Badosh Rd., western Mosul, targeting an Iraqi army patrol, wounding one soldier,” the source added.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Grenades and gunfire killed 16 people and injured several others when militants attacked a convoy of civilian vehicles that the Pakistani military was escorting through the country's tribal region Saturday, intelligence officials told CNN. Militants ambushed the convoy, two Pakistani intelligence officials said, first using rocket-propelled grenades and then following with gunfire. The officials asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They said the convoy was mostly local Shia Muslims traveling to Peshawar from Parachinar, the largest town in the district of Kurram.

#2: At least 18 suspected militants were killed and 10 others wounded in an air strike launched Saturday by the Pakistani air forces on several militant hideouts in the country's northwest tribal area of Orakzai, reported local Urdu TV Channel Dunya. According to report, the jet fighters of the Pakistani air forces bombarded seven houses in the area, which were believed to be militant hideouts based on tip-offs, and destroyed them completely.


DoD: Pvt. Brandon M. King

DoD: 1st Lt. Christopher S. Goeke

DoD: Staff Sgt. Christopher T. Stout

DoD: Staff Sgt. Sheldon L. Tate

DoD: Spc. Chase Stanley

DoD: Spc. Jesse D. Reed

DoD: Spc. Matthew J. Johnson

DoD: Sgt. Zachary M. Fisher

Posted by whisker at 3:57 AM

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