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 22, 2011

War News for Saturday, December 22, 2011

The DoD is reporting a new death unreported by the military. Petty Officer Dominique Cruz was found presumably dead in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday, January 19th. after being reported missing on Tuesday January 18.


Morbid Curiosity Leading Many Voters To Support Palin

US bombs erase Afghan village from map

Sadr returns to Iran


Reported security incidents

Kirkuk:
#1: A joint Iraqi-US checkpoint has been attacked by unknown gunmen in southern Kirkuk's Leylan township on Friday night. A group of unknown armed men have opened fire on Friday from a fast car on a joint chekpoint of the Iraqi and American Emergency Police forces close to Leylan township on the main highway passing through the township, 15 kms to the south of Kirkuk, before escaping to an unknown destination," the said source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that the security forces closed the road between Kirkuk and Leylan, searching for the attackers, but gave no further details.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Three suicide attackers detonated their explosives vests during a gunbattle with Afghan and coalition forces that left 10 militants and one civilian dead in Khost province of eastern Afghanistan. Provincial police chief Abdul Hakim Ishaqzia said the battle, which lasted several hours early Saturday morning, began after insurgents fired a rocket toward a group of Afghan and Nato forces who were preparing to go on patrol in the Sabari district. He said the joint force killed 10 militants and arrested 12 others. A civilian was killed and a woman and child were injured by the explosions caused by the suicide bombers.

#2: Three people including two paramilitary soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb blast in northwest Pakistan's tribal district of Orakzai, says officials. An improvised explosive device planted by militants went off in the town of Ibrahimzai during a routine patrol by paramilitary soldiers, a security official said on Saturday. "Two soldiers and one civilian were killed in the blast," Abdul Qadir, a local administration official, told AFP. Seven other people -- one soldier and six civilians -- were wounded in the explosion near the bazaar in Ibrahimzai, he said.

#3: Seven civilians were killed as a rocket struck a house in Ghazni province of Afghanistan on Saturday, an official said. "A rocket fired by militants struck a house in Khoza village of Muqar district at 01:30 p.m. local time today leaving seven civilians dead,"a local official told Xinhua but declined to be identified. Meanwhile, Barakatullah the police chief of Muqar district in talks with Xinhua confirmed the incident and said,"only two civilians were killed and five others including three children sustained injuries."

#4: An explosion in southern Afghanistan killed one Afghan policeman and injured nine others, official said Saturday. 'The blast took place in Nahr-e-Saraj district, where a joint operation of Afghan and NATO-led forces is going on,' provincial government spokesman Daud Ahmadi said. 'A roadside bomb struck a police vehicle in the southern province of Helmand today killing at least one policeman and injuring nine others.'

#5: Airstrikes conducted by NATO-led forces in Afghanistan's Laghman province 260 km east of capital city Kabul left over 10 militants dead on Friday, the military alliance said Saturday. "Coalition forces targeted the Taliban shadow district governor for Hisarak, Laghman province, killing more than 10 insurgents with two precision air strikes in the province yesterday,"the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force ( ISAF) said in a press release issued here.


DoD: Sgt. Jason G. Amores

DoD: Petty Officer Dominique Cruz

DoD: Pfc. Amy R. Sinkler

Posted by whisker at 2:45 AM

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