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, December 13, 2010

War News for Monday, December 13, 2010

Iran conducts military exercise near Iraq border

Thousands quit Afghan police force

With New Violence, More Christians Are Fleeing Iraq

As U.S. assesses Afghan war, Karzai a question mark


Reported security incidents

Numaniya:
#1: An explosive charge blew up in front of a policeman’s house in the north of Kut city, causing material losses to the house and its neighboring houses, but caused no human casualties, a Wassit police source said on Monday. “An explosive charge blew up earlier today (Monday) in front of a house of a policeman in al-Alban district in Nu’maniya township, 40 km to the north of Kut city, causing material losses to the house and neighboring houses,” the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Police say a bomb has exploded near a school in northwest Pakistan's main city, killing at least two children. Several other children were wounded in the Monday blast in Peshawar. Police official Shakir Khan says the bus was parked outside a private school. A few children were getting on the bus when the explosion occurred. He says the exact nature of the bomb was not yet clear. The victims were being rushed to the hospital.

A roadside bomb exploded near a school bus in northwest Pakistan's main city on Monday, killing the driver and wounding at least two children, police said.


DoD: Pfc. David D. Finch

Posted by whisker at 2:42 AM

1 comments:

Cervantes said...

Information now available on the deaths of 6 U.S. troops yesterday.

"Several suspects have been arrested after a suicide attack killed six American troops when an explosives-packed minibus blew up at the entrance of a joint NATO-Afghan base in southern Afghanistan, officials said Monday."

December 13, 2010 at 4:55 AM

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