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, March 4, 2011

War News for Friday, March 04, 2011

Iraq's Baiji refinery back to normal: oil ministry

Iraq authorities limit movement as protests mount

Marines await Taliban move in deadly Afghan valley


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1-2: Five people were wounded in blasts from two improvised explosive devices in two different areas of Baghdad on Thursday, a local security source said.

#1: “An IED went off near an Iraqi army patrol over Afaq bridge in Tunis neighborhood, northern Baghdad, leaving two soldiers wounded and severely damaging a patrol vehicle,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: “Another IED blast targeted a police patrol at al-Khotout intersection, on al-Maghreb street in Baghdad, leaving two patrolmen and one civilian man wounded,” he said, adding they were all rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A chieftain survived on Friday an assassination attempt when an explosive charge went off targeting his house in northeast of Baaquba, a security source said. “An explosive charge went off on Friday (March 4) near the house of Sheikh Haitham al-Houm, chief of al-Nada tribes, in al-Nada region in Mendli, Khanaqin, southeast of Baaquba, without leaving casualties,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “Explosives experts managed to defuse two more bombs near the house,” he added.

#2: A former army deputy officer was killed in an armed attack by gunmen, northern Baaquba.


Kirkuk:
#1: Two bodies were found on Friday in south of Kirkuk province, according to a security source. “Policemen found on Friday morning (March 4) two bodies in al-Aaskari neighborhood near Saylo Touz, south of Kirkuk,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The two bodies, one belongs to a Peshmerga element and the other belongs to a civilian, show signs of gunshot wounds,” he added, without giving more details.


Mosul:
#1: Unidentified gunmen shot dead the son of a tribal chief in an armed attack on his house west of Mosul city on Thursday, a local security source in Ninewa said. “Unknown gunmen raided the house of Ali al-Jabban, the son of the al-Jabban clan in Talafar district, (60 km) west of Mosul, and shot him down,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A bomb exploded in a mosque in the northwestern Pakistani town of Nowshera on Friday, killing at least nine people and wounding over 30, police and hospital officials said. The blast took place when food was being distributed to the poor after midday Friday prayers. "Many people had left the mosque after prayers. Otherwise losses would have been higher," said Adil Khan, a Nowshera police official.

#2: Three NATO oil tankers were destroyed in an explosion at the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Khyber agency. The blast occurred after one of the oil tankers parked near a road in the Torkham area of Landi Kotal caught fire. The other two tankers also caught fire from the first tanker. No casualties were reported.

#3: Yesterday, a Nato tanker was attacked in Peshawar’s Taj market causing damage to nearby shops and buildings.

#4: Afghan and NATO forces during search operation eliminated four militants in Afghanistan's Khost province, some 150 km southeast of capital city Kabul, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement on Friday. "Afghan and coalition forces killed Usman Ghani, a Haqqani network facilitator, detained 10 suspected insurgents and killed three Afghan males, who threatened the security force during an operation targeting Haqqani network leaders in Nadir Shah Kot district, Khost province, yesterday," said the statement.

#5: Two rounds of what is believed to be rocket-propelled grenades fell near the base for South Korean aid workers in Afghanistan Friday, but there were no casualties, a foreign ministry official said. The explosions were heard around 1:44 a.m. Friday (Korean time) from the base in the northern Afghan city of Charika, and the suspected RPG rounds are believed to have landed outside the facility, the ministry said.


DoD: Senior Airman Nicholas J. Alden

5 comments:

Dancewater said...

"They say they are sorry, and before the week is over, they will do it again." - from last Wednesday


YEAP, they did it again! This time they killed 8 Afghan police officers.

Dancewater said...

Protesters say Maliki is using special security forces to shut down demonstrations in Iraq

Baghdad - Among the revolts sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, Iraq's has been an exception: Here, protesters are seeking to reform a democratically elected government, not to topple an autocrat.

But protesters, human rights workers and security officials say the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has responded to Iraq's demonstrations in much the same way as many of its more authoritarian neighbors: with force.

Witnesses in Baghdad and as far north as Kirkuk described watching last week as security forces in black uniforms, tracksuits and T-shirts roared up in trucks and Humvees, attacked protesters, rounded up others from cafes and homes and hauled them off, blindfolded, to army detention centers.

Entire neighborhoods - primarily Sunni areas where residents are generally opposed to Maliki - were blockaded to prevent residents from joining the demonstrations. Journalists were beaten.

In most cases, regular soldiers and police officers simply stood aside, with one saying the matter was "beyond us." In all, 29 people were killed.

"Maliki is starting to act like Saddam Hussein, to use the same fear, to plant it inside Iraqis who criticize him," said Salam Mohammed al-Segar, a human rights activist who was among those beaten during a sit-in. "The U.S. must feel embarrassed right now - it is they who promised a modern state, a democratic state. But in reality?" He shook his head.


*******************
This Iraqi man does not realize that many Americans are either too stupid or too evil to be embarrassed about anything they send the US military to do. That's why some American assholes think that Iraq is better off now than they were in 2002, and why some American assholes think we should send the US military to Libya to "save lives". They are stupid and they are evil.

Dancewater said...

The rebels in Libya had a storage depot of weapons, which has exploded. It was a huge explosion, per McClatchy news.

Libya, unlike Egypt or Tunisa, is going to be quite bloody, because the rebels did not stick to non-violent resistance. They picked up weapons right away, and used violence to fight back.

VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE, always and forever.

Dancewater said...

about those deaths in Mexico:


Hoping to score a major prosecution of Mexican drug lords, federal prosecutors and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives permitted hundreds of guns to be purchased and retained by suspected straw buyers with the expectation they might cross the border and even be used in crimes while the case was being built, according to documents and interviews.

The decision — part of a Phoenix-based operation code named “Fast and Furious” — was met by strong objections from some front-line agents who feared they were allowing weapons like AK-47s to “walk” into the hands of drug lords and gun runners, internal agency memos show. Indeed, scores of the weapons came back quickly traced to criminal activity.

One of those front-line agents who objected, John Dodson, 39, told the Center for Public Integrity that these guns “are going to be turning up in crimes on both sides of the border for decades.” Dodson said in an interview that “with the number of guns we let walk, we’ll never know how many people were killed, raped, robbed … there is nothing we can do to round up those guns. They are gone.”

Dancewater said...

Hundreds of people marched in Sadr city, chanting anti-US slogans and denouncing what they called Washington's risky interference in the region.


A number of politicians were among the protesters. The Friday prayer leader, Suhail Al Eqabi called on the people of Libya and Bahrain to be wary of US intervention.

Iraqis are deeply opposed to any military intervention by the US or any other country in Libya. Many believe they have experienced, first hand, what a trail of destruction a war can leave behind.

Anti-US sentiments run high and a lot of people blame Washington for the political difficulties their country has been going through.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87nHkHdAmO4