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


Friday, January 7, 2011

War News for Friday, December 07, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, January 7th.

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, January 7th.


Allied surge fails to dent Taliban strength in Afghanistan

Sadrists Project Confidence in Iraq

In Iraq, apprehension ahead of speech by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr

Pentagon Seeks Biggest Military Cuts Since Before 9/11


Reported security incidents

Diyala Prv:
#1: Gunmen shot dead five people, including the sister of an Iraqi policeman, in their beds in a house northeast of Baghdad early on Friday morning, a police official said. The gunmen killed the policeman's sister, her husband's mother and father, their daughter and a child in their home in Husseiniya, northeast of the capital, the official said. The policeman had called his sister, who did not answer the phone. He then went to the house and discovered she and the other four people had been killed, the official said.


Mosul:
#1: Iraqi forces and national intelligence personnel managed to thwart an attempt to blow up a church in central Mosul city on Thursday, according to a military source. “An Iraqi army’s 2nd Division force, in coordination with the national intelligence service, foiled an attempt to detonate a church in the area of al-Dawwasa, central Mosul, as the force seized six improvised explosive devices and two explosive belts prepared for detonation near the church,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A suicide bomber struck a bath house in a southern Afghan town as men gathered to wash up before Friday prayers, killing 17 people, a provincial official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack they said targeted the deputy of an influential border patrol commander. The midday bombing killed 16 civilians and a police inspector in Spin Boldak near the Pakistani border, about 70 miles east of the provincial capital of Kandahar, said the governor's spokesman, Zalmay Ayubi. An additional 23 people were wounded, and officials said many of them were transported to Pakistan for treatment.

#2: A barrage of US missiles killed up to five militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal district on Friday, destroying a vehicle used by Islamist fighters, security officials said. They said strikes killed five rebels in Ghar Laley village, 35 kilometres (22 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, and close to the Afghan border. "US drones fired four missiles, targeting a vehicle and a house," a local Pakistani security official said. "So far five bodies have been recovered," he said. "Taliban have surrounded the area and there are fears the final toll may go up," he said.


DoD: Sgt. Jose M. Cintron Rosado

DoD: Spc. Jose A. Delgado Arroyo

DoD: Sgt. Eric M. Nettleton

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am a skilled beef boner and I was wondering if these cuts to military funding could be increased by a far greater amount to save both money to Americans to stop their winging and save heart ache to the millions of people around the world who suffer at the hands of their pathetic games.