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, July 21, 2010

War News for Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The DoD is reporting a new death of a soldier previously unreported by the military. Sgt. Jesse R. Tilton died at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany on Friday, July 16th. He was wounded by small arms fire, gunshot/RPG in Kandahar City, Afghanistan on Tuesday, July 13th.

The DoD is reporting another new death of a soldier previously unreported by the military. Sgt. Anibal Santiago died from a non-combat related incident somewhere in Khost, Afghanistan on Sunday, July 18th.

The Danish MOD is reporting the death of a Danish ISAF soldier in an IED attack at FOB Budwan, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Wednesday, July 21st. One additional soldier was wounded in the attack.

The DND/CF is reporting the death of a Canadian ISAF soldier in an IED attack in the Panjwa’i District, about 15 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City, Kandahar province, Afghanistan on Tuesday, July 20th.


Explosion closes Iran-Turkey gas pipeline

Seeking out the PKK gunmen in Iraq's remote mountains

Security guard killed in Iraq named: Nicholas Crouch, 29, was escorting US Army engineers to a hospital under construction in the city of Mosul when his convoy came under attack at about 9am on Monday.

U.S. platoon suffers heavy losses in lush Afghan fields


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A civilian was killed and three others were wounded when a magnetic bomb attached to a car detonated in Baghdad's western neighborhood of al-Ameriyah, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

#2: In separate incident, two policemen were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion near their patrol in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, the source said.

#3: Also in Baghdad, two civilians were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in Palestine Street in eastern the capital in the morning, the source added.


Diyala Prv:
#1: In Diyala, three family members were wounded when unknown gunmen attacked their house in the city of Khalis, near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a source from the provincial operations command told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The attack took place at dawn when the attackers opened fire on the house with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, the source said.

#2: Separately, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint manned by an Awakening Council group, wounding one of the group members, the source added.

#3: In a separate incident, a roadside bomb struck a U.S. patrol outside Maqdadiyah, damaging one of the U.S. vehicles, the source said without giving further details. The U.S. military has no immediate comment about the incident.


Wassit Prv:
#1: Four Katyusha missiles hit the Delta Base west of Kit city, a local security source said on Wednesday. “Unknown gunmen launched four Katyusha rockets late Tuesday night targeting the Delta Base, 7 km west of Kut city, which hosts Multi National Forces (MNF) in Wassit province,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that Iraqi police forces rushed to the launching site at the al-Jihad neighborhood, western Kut, looking for the attackers. MNF in the Delta Base has so far made no comment on the attack.


Kirkuk:
#1: Three persons were wounded on Wednesday when a roadside bomb went off west of Kirkuk city. “The bomb targeted a civilian vehicle near the Bajwan village, 15 km west of Kirkuk city,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that the blast devastated the car, and wounded the three persons inside it.


Mosul:
#1: Six civilians were wounded on Tuesday by a hand grenade in central Mosul, according to a security source. “A gunman threw a hand grenade on a police vehicle patrol in a market in al-Midan region, central Mosul, injuring six civilians,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A gunman was killed on Tuesday when the bomb he was planting went off in northern Mosul, a security source said. “The gunman was planting a bomb on a road in al-Shurta neighborhood in northern Mosul, when it exploded suddenly, killing him instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: One civilian was killed on Wednesday when unknown gunmen targeted his house in central Falluja city. “Unidentified gunmen used roadside bombs to attack a citizen’s house in the al-Golan neighborhood, central Falluja,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that the civilian died instantantly, while his house was heavily damaged.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least 25 militants were killed in clashes with security forces in the Orakzai tribal region, DawnNews reported. According to government sources, security forces were advancing through upper Orakzai’s Dabori and Alikhel areas. One soldier died during the clash while four others were injured.

#2: Taliban insurgents beheaded six Afghan police during a raid on government buildings in northern Baghlan province, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Wednesday. Tuesday's attack by the Taliban targeted a police post and and a district government building in a province where they have been largely absent until recently. It came on the same day an international conference agreed Afghan forces should be leading security operations across the country by 2014, with the aim of relieving foreign troops in some areas by as soon as the end of the year. A spokesman for the Taliban confirmed the attack, but denied the alliance's report on beheadings. While the Taliban has carried out beheadings before, the governor of Baghlan, Abdul Majid, said he was unaware of the mutilation report.

#3: An Afghan soldier opened fire on U.S. civilian trainers at an army base in northern Afghanistan, killing two Americans before being shot dead, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday. An argument started during a weapons-training exercise and the Afghan soldier turned his gun on the Americans on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement. Another Afghan soldier was killed in the resulting crossfire, and the shooter was later gunned down. NATO previously said two Americans and two Afghan soldiers were killed by gunfire at a firing range outside Mazar-e-Sharif, but it did not provide details on how the incident occurred. The soldier fled after that attack, leaving his motive unclear. But the Taliban claimed he was a militant sympathizer taken in by insurgents after the assault.

#4: Afghan forces backed by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) raided Taliban hideouts in Chardara district of northern Kunduz province eliminated five militants, provincial governor Mohammad Omar said Wednesday. "The operation took place late Tuesday night during which the troops killed five rebels and arrested three others," Omar told Xinhua. There were no casualties on the troops, he emphasized.

#5: Several rockets struck a coalition base at Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan on late Tuesday evening, but caused no injuries, the Australian Department of Defence said on Wednesday. One of the rockets caused minor damage to an Australian facility at the Multi-National Base, but caused no casualties.

#6: Militants fired a mortar at a security post in the region on the Afghan border, killing one soldier and damaging the post.

#7: Some 13 Taliban militants were killed as aircraft raided their hideout in Pushtroad district of Farah province in western Afghanistan, police said Wednesday. "Acting upon intelligence report NATO aircraft raided a hideout of Taliban militants in Pushtroad district Tuesday morning killing 13 rebels and wounding 15 others," Ikramudin Yawar told Xinhua.


DoD: Sgt. Justin B. Allen

DoD: Gunnery Sgt. Christopher L. Eastman

DoD: 1st Lt. Robert N. Bennedsen

DoD: Sgt. Anibal Santiago

DoD: Sgt. Jesse R. Tilton

DND/CF: Sapper Brian Collier

6 comments:

Cervantes said...

Just by the way, this from Jonathan Schwartz:

"Back in 2006, David Sanger co-wrote an article for the New York Times with this sentence:

The possibility that Saddam Hussein might develop “weapons of mass destruction” and pass them to terrorists was the prime reason Mr. Bush gave in 2003 for ordering the invasion of Iraq.

After I pointed that out, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting complained about it, and the Times ran a correction:

An article that appeared on NYTimes.com for part of the day on Sept. 5 incorrectly described President Bush's statements about Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs at the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Mr. Bush said it was Iraq's possession of those weapons that was the main justification for the invasion, not the possibility that the weapons could be developed.

However, I've just noticed that at some point in the past four years, they un-corrected it, removing the correction from their website and posting the story with the false sentence exactly as it first appeared.

You have to admit they're good."

Anonymous said...

There is no doubt that Bush thought Saddam had WMDs as did almost all intel agencies world-wide. In August of '03, after it became evident that we weren't going to find any WMDs, former Pres Clinton said he was just as shocked as anyone not find WMDs in Iraq and that people shouldn't criticize Bush.

Even Saddam's own generals thought there were WMDs. . . apparently Saddam so distrusted his own army that he told the generals that "the other division" had them as way to keep them all in line.

Anonymous said...

Saddam is dead.

Cervantes said...

Sadly no, if Bush thought Saddam had so-called Weapons of Mass Destruction™ it's only because Rumsfeld and Cheney were deceiving him. The head of MI5 at the time has just testified that actually, no, they didn't think so, and neither did the CIA. The phony "intelligence" was cooked up by a fake intelligence operation run by Cheney and Rumsfeld that was fed garbage by Ahamad Chalabi. The only reason any other nation's intelligence services thought Saddam had banned weapons is because the U.S. was telling them so.

It was all a big fat lie. That is now a proven historical fact.

Anonymous said...

Naaaa, it was the French that said the aluminum tubes were for centrifuges for his nuclear refinement program. Even though the US intel said no, they were for rockets. There are more examples of contradicting info from various intel agencies.

There was a robust debate within the intel community about the WMDs. This means that some said "yes there are" and some said "No there isn't." The problem with you blinded compatriots is that you take anything that the "no there isn't" crowd and claim it was the known truth.

Lets say, for the sake of argument, that I say there is a God and you say there isn't. When we die we meet in heaven. Will I then say that that you lied? No, I will say you were misinformed and that I forgive you.


Wiz

Cervantes said...

Read my comment on the Thursday post.