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, August 2, 2010

War News for Monday, August 02, 2010

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier from small arms fire in the Lashkar Gah district, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Sunday August 1st.

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF Marine from an IED attack in the Sangin district, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Sunday, August 1st.


PKK militants bomb train in E Turkey

270 Afghan civilians killed in July

A Benchmark of Progress, Electrical Grid Fails Iraqis

US stalls on Sept. 11 trial for 5 at Gitmo

Rebels capture 228 hostages in Yemen: Security authorities in Yemen are confirming that Shiite rebels have been holding 228 soldiers and pro-government tribesmen hostage, after seizing a military facility in the country's troubled north.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Also on Monday, police officials said a roadside bomb apparently targeting a police patrol missed and killed three civilians travelling in a car and wounded eight bystanders in the western part of Baghdad.

Two civilians were killed on Monday and two others wounded when a roadside bomb went off in southwestern Baghdad. “The blast occurred today along the major road in al-Shurtta al-Rabeaa neighborhood, southwestern Baghdad,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Shortly after midnight, police and hospital officials said gunmen in a car opened fire at a cafe in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City, killing two people and wounding seven.


Mosul:
#1: An Iraqi army officer (major) was killed on Monday when a roadside bomb hit his patrol south of Mosul city. “The blast occurred today targeting an army patrol on the Mosul–Hamam al-Aleel road, south of Mosul,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that an army major was killed and one of the patrol’s vehicles was damaged in the blast.

#2: “A roadside bomb went off today targeting a police patrol in the al-Rifaee neighborhood, western Mosul, wounding no policemen but two children who were by coincidence passing by,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: “A roadside bomb went off today targeting an Iraqi army patrol in the al-Rasheediya area, northern Mosul, wounding a soldier and a civilian,” the source added.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Suspected al-Qaida militants on Monday blew up the house of a policeman in a former stronghold of the Sunni insurgency west of Baghdad, killing him, his wife and 4-year-old daughter, hospital and police officials said. The policeman's house was blown up before dawn in the Karmah district outside the city of Fallujah while the family was sleeping, police and hospital officials said. Seven other family members, including four of the policeman's sons, were wounded in the blast, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: suicide car bomber blew himself up next to a police truck bringing a southern Afghan official to work early Monday, killing five children nearby, officials said. The blast went off at about 9 a.m. local time near a market area in Dand district to the west of Kandahar city, according to the official _ district government chief Ahmadullah Nazak. A bodyguard who was driving with Nazak was wounded, he said.

#2: In the east meanwhile, NATO forces said they captured a local insurgent commander in Paktia province and killed "several insurgents" in an air strike on a vehicle after troops saw the commander putting an anti-aircraft gun inside. A spokesman for NATO forces, Sgt. Michael Reinsch, declined to say how many insurgents were killed.

#3: Fifteen militants were killed and eight others sustained injuries when jet fighters blitzed four hideouts of the insurgents in upper Teshil of Orakzai Agency on Sunday, official sources said. The sources said the jet fighters targeted hideouts of the militants in their strongholds, including Tor Kanra, Naryak and Mazid Garhi. After the air strikes, forces started advancement in the area and launched a search operation on a large-scale, the sources said. During the search, security forces claimed to have recovered suicide jackets, landmines and heavy arms, including machines guns. The casualties suffered by the militants could not be verified from independent sources.

#4: An official says militants attacked a government official's convoy by using a remote-controlled bomb hidden in a rickshaw in eastern Afghanistan. Ghafar Khan, a police spokesman in Nangarhar province a presidential adviser's convoy was hit as it was driving through Jalalabad city. He said the adviser - Wahidullah Sabaoun - was wounded but not seriously.

Waheedullah Sabawon, advisor for Afghan President Hamid Karzai on tribal affairs and seven others were wounded Monday while a roadside bomb went off in Jalalabad, the capital city of the eastern Nangarhar province, a senior military official said.

#5: Meanwhile, NATO said in a statement that in eastern Nuristan province, NATO and Afghan troops attacked two villages that had been held by Taliban fighters, killing more than 30 insurgents. The statement said two Afghan soldiers were killed.


DoD: Capt. Jason E. Holbrook

DoD: Staff Sgt. Kyle R. Warren

DoD: Spc. Michael L. Stansbery

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Anonymous said...

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