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


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

War News for Tuesday, February 08, 2011

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

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, February 8th.

NATO is reporting another death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, February 8th.


Karzai: NATO reconstruction bases have to go

British soldier David Dalzell ‘shot by accident in Afghanistan as he and pal cleaned rifles’

US suspends Pak bilateral contacts


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Iraqi Defense Ministry officer Major General Dr. Ihsan Ali was killed in a blast due to a bomb planted at his house’s door in Al Ghazaliya region. His car was set ablaze and his house was damaged in the bombing, Alsumaria News reported.

The security source also said that another IED blew off in the same venue of the attack, after the arrival of Army and police forces to the area, wounding two soldiers, a policeman and a civilian.

#2: Gunmen raided a house in Al Moushahada region, northern Baghdad, on Tuesday and forced the owner and his son to go outside where they opened fire on them and killed them on the spot.

#3: In another incident, the same source said that "two Katyusha rockets fell in Baghdad's Tigris River, in front of the Green Zone," giving no further details.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded near the offices of the Iraqiya political coalition, wounding two security guards and a civilian, in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.


Iskandariya:
#1: A police officer and a woman were killed in two improvised explosive device (IED) blasts in Babel on Monday, a local security source said. “Two IEDs went off near an Iraqi police patrol on the main street in al-Iskandariya district, (50 km) northern al-Hilla city, leaving a police officer in the rank of captain killed after his vehicle was destroyed,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The blasts also left a woman who happened to be near the attack scene killed,” he added.


Taji:
#1: "An IED, was launched against a U.S. Army patrol in northwest Baghdad's Taji area, close to the Municipal Council's office on Monday night, causing material losses only," the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A roadside bomb targeting a municipal government vehicle wounded two government workers in Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.


Mosul:
#1: Two policemen were wounded in an attack with an improvised explosive device (IED) in western Mosul city on Monday, a security source in Ninewa said. “An IED blast targeted a 7th Emergency Police patrol in 17 Tammuz neighborhood, western Mosul, today (Feb. 7), leaving two policemen wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “One of the two policemen is seriously injured,” he added, not giving further information about the incident.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Blasts targeted police working in Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least one policeman, officials said. The officer was killed in Balkh province in northern Afghanistan when an improvised explosive device struck a police vehicle. "One police has been killed and three others were injured," a local police spokesman said.

#2: In the capital Kabul, there was an explosion in a traffic police vehicle in a congested area of the city centre, but no casualties. "It was a small blast in a traffic police vehicle," said Mohammad Zahir, the city's criminal investigation police chief said.

At least two people were injured when a blast rocked Cinema Pamir area in downtown Kabul Tuesday afternoon, police said. "A magnetic mine was planted under a traffic police vehicle and detonated at around 2:30 p.m. local time, injuring two people," a police official who declined to be identified told Xinhua. However, he did not say if the injured were police or civilians.

#3: "A roadside improvised explosive device exploded as an army vehicle passed by in Janikhel town, killing two soldiers and wounding four others," a senior military official told AFP. An intelligence official confirmed the incident and casualties, about 150 kilometres (95 miles) south of Peshawar, the capital of the northwest.

#4: Just north of Peshawar, another roadside blast struck a police van, killing one policeman in the Mithra area. Police official Muhammad Ejaz said three other policemen were injured.

#5: On the outskirts of Peshawar, a bomb planted in a NATO oil tanker exploded in a massive ball of fire, destroying 16 vehicles including three other tankers used to supply NATO forces, police said. "The bomb was planted in a NATO oil tanker. Sixteen vehicles were completely destroyed in the fire caused by the explosion," police official Shafiullah Khan told AFP. Six people were hurt and six nearby shops damaged in the fire, Khan said. The tankers and other vehicles were parked at the time of the explosion and had been due to continue the journey into the lawless tribal district of Khyber and across the border into Afghanistan, he added.

#6: Suspected tribal militants blew up two major natural gas pipelines in Pakistan’s southwest on Tuesday, forcing the suspension of supplies to the strategic region bordering Afghanistan and Iran, officials said. “We have suspended gas supply to the province as the pipelines are on fire,” Inayatullah Ismail, a spokesman for Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) that supplies gas to the southern parts of the country told Reuters. Ismail said he was unsure how long it would take to extinguish the fire and resume gas supplies.

#7: The twin explosions followed a late Monday night attack on four transmission pylons in the Bolan area, suspending power supplies to around half of the province’s 30 districts. A spokesman for the government-owned power company said that electricity to some parts of the provincial capital of Quetta had been restored, but the rest of the districts had been “in complete darkness for the last 24 hours”.

#8: Evading security checks, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest entered the customs compound in Kandahar on Monday and detonated the vest as several U.S. soldiers were emerging from their armored vehicle in the compound's courtyard. The blast killed an American and Afghan civilian and wounded five other people including two of the soldiers, according to Afghan and NATO security forces and the U.S. Embassy. It was the fourth suicide bombing of the year in Kandahar province. Officials said the dead Afghan was an interpreter, and the American was an adviser to the customs office. Their identities were not immediately disclosed. "At the time, I heard a big explosion and saw American bodies were lying on the ground bleeding," said Mohammed Shoib, the customs office's director of control. "Then some other Americans came and started helping them, and then a helicopter landed inside the customs compound and took away the dead and wounded."


DoD: Cpl. Lucas T. Pyeatt

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