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


Thursday, March 3, 2011

War News for Thursday, March 03, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, March 3rd.


Two U.S. airmen shot dead in Germany

Pakistani Court Delays Murder Charges Against American


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A bomb went off on Wednesday targeting a U.S. convoy in al-Qanat street in eastern Baghdad, without leaving casualties, according to a security source. “The bomb exploded near al-Mashtal bridge, eastern Baghdad, causing material damage only to the U.S. convoy’s vehicles,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. U.S. army spokesman, Nader Soliman, confirmed the incident, saying that an explosive charge went off on Wednesday targeting U.S. army in al-Qanat street, without leaving casualties.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A member of a local paramilitary group, known as Awakening Council, was killed by gunmen in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala on Thursday, a provincial police source said. Gunmen stormed the house of Dhiyaa Mahmoud Ali in a village near the town of Maqdadiyah at dawn, some 100 km northeast of Baghdad, killing Mahmoud and his wife, the source from the provincial operations command told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Mahmoud's four children, aged from one to four years, were also wounded, the source said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a bank in the northwestern Iraqi city of Haditha on Thursday, killing nine people including three policemen, the town's mayor said. Eight other people, all civilians, were wounded in the midday blast at a branch of the state-owned Al-Rafidain bank in Haditha, 210 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, Mayor Bassim Naji said. Nine people have been killed in the suicide attack at Al-Rafidain bank," Naji said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: An army sniffer dog has died hours after his handler was shot dead by a Taliban sniper in Afghanistan. Theo, a springer spaniel, had a seizure after Lance Corporal Liam Tasker was killed by small arms fire while they were on patrol in Helmand province. Apart from Theo, five other British military dogs have been killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and November last year.

#2-3: A highway ambush and a car bomb attack targeting security forces in Pakistan's troubled northwest killed 13 people Thursday, officials said, in a sign of the resilience of Islamist militants despite army operations against them.

#2: The bombing hit the Hangu area, just outside the tribal regions along the Afghan border where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters have long operated, said senior police official Rasheed Khan. A bomb hidden in a vehicle in a residential area where a small police station was located went off as a police vehicle carrying officers drove by, Khan said. Three police and four civilians died. The blast also wounded 30 people and damaged around a dozen houses, he said.

#3: Gunmen in the nearby Khyber tribal region ambushed another group of police, shooting and killing six, said local government official Farooq Khan. The police had been driving to a security checkpoint in the area when they were attacked.

#4: At least 2 foreign and 4 Afghan soldiers were wounded on Thursday in southern Kandahar in a roadside bomb blast, officials said. The incident happened at 01:00 am in the old part of Kandahar city when a roadside bomb struck a convoy of foreign and Afghan forces, local officials said. There is no word on the nationality of the foreign soldiers wounded in the incident. Meanwhile, Kandahar central hospital officials said the hospital has received four Afghan soldiers wounded in the incident.


MoD: Lance Corporal Liam Richard Tasker

DoD: Spc. Rudolph R. Hizon

DoD: Staff Sgt. Chauncy R. Mays

DoD: Spc. Christopher G. Stark

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