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, January 8, 2011

War News for Saturday, December 08, 2011

Sadr exhorts Iraqis to resist US 'occupiers'

26th MEU will return to Afghanistan to hold the line

DOD Identifies Units for Upcoming Afghanistan Rotation

NATO to deploy AWACS in Afghanistan

In Wider War in Afghanistan, Survival Rate of Wounded Rises: - Nearly 5,500 American troops were wounded in action — more than double the total of 2,415 in 2009, and almost six times the number wounded in 2008. In all, fewer than 7.9 percent of the Americans wounded in 2010 died, down from more than 11 percent the previous year and 14.3 percent in 2008.


Reported security incidents

Amarra:
#1: The police found the unidentified body of a young man in central al-Amara city on Friday, a security source in Missan province said.


Nassiriya:
#1: Two people were killed and another wounded in a blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) emplaced inside a vehicle in southern al-Nasseriya city, a security source in Thi-Qar said on Friday. “The charge went off inside a vehicle owned by a former member of (Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s) Mahdi Army, used in carrying IEDs. The vehicle was parked in the garage of his house in al-Sikak neighborhood, southern Nasseriya, leaving him and his brother killed and another man wounded and causing severe damage to the house,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Taji:
#1: Unknown gunmen opened fire on Saturday morning on the convoy of head of Premiership anti-terrorism apparatus Major General Hatem Saadun in Al Taji District, northern Baghdad, a police source told Alsumaria News. Using muted weapons, unknown gunmen killed a security guard and seriously wounded another, the source said affirming that the Major General was not hurt.


Mosul:
#1: Two soldiers and a woman were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near their private vehicle south of Mosul city on Friday, a local security source in Ninewa said. “The IED went off near the private vehicle of two Iraqi soldiers and a woman in Kunaytera village, Hammam al-Aleel district, south of Mosul, leaving them wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: An Iraqi soldier has been injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Mosul city, the center of northern Iraq’s Ninewa Province on Friday night, a security source said. “An Iraqi soldier has been wounded tonight (Friday) in an IED blast close to an Iraqi Army’s checkpoint in eastern Mosul’s Dargazaliya district,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: In a clash between foreign forces and insurgents in Logar province on Friday four foreign soldiers were wounded and their interpreter was, provincial officials told TOLOnews. The incident happened in Charkh district of Logar province when a convoy of foreign forces passing by the area came under militants' attack, provincial official said. Meanwhile, Din Mohammad Darwish, a spokesman for governor of Logar confirmed the incident and said there was no report about anyone being wounded. Two insurgents have been killed in the incident, he added.

#2: At least six people including two police officers were injured in a blast that took place Friday evening at a market place in the city of Charsadda in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, reported local Urdu TV channel Dunnya. According to the report, the blast took place at about 6:30 p.m. local time near a CD shop at the Umarzai Market in Charsadda, a city north of Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US9J2o16bJE