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


Wednesday, March 2, 2011

War News for Wednesday, March 02, 2011

The French military is reporting the death of a French ISAF soldier who was found dead presumably of natural causes in his room in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, February 24th.


Royal Army Veterinary Corps soldier killed in Afghanistan - reported yesterday in this ISAF release.

Pakistan Minorities Minister Killed in Islamabad

Tribal peace deal in Afghanistan on shaky ground


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1-2: The worst attack occurred in the Ghazaliya neighborhoods when a roadside exploded outside Talib al-Edani's house , an offical with the Sunni Endowment, a group that oversees Sunni religious sites in Iraq. Edani was wounded along with two other people. A few minutes later, when Iraqi security forces arrived to the scene, another roadside bomb exploded, killing one civilian and wounding nine people, including five Iraqi soldiers.

Three Iraqi soldiers and three civilians have been injured in an IED (improvised explosive device) blast, targeted against an Iraqi Army patrol east of Baghdad on Wednesday, a security source said. “An IED blew up close to an Iraqi Army patrol in northeastern Baghdad’s Ghazaliya district on Wednesday, wounding 3 of its soldiers and 3 civilians, along with causing some damage to the patrol’s vehicles,” he said, giving no further details.

#2: Four persons were wounded on Tuesday by a roadside bomb blast in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, a security source said. “The bomb exploded on Tuesday (March 1) inside a café near Imam Ali hospital in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad, wounding four people and damaging the café,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: “An IED blew up close to a petrol filling station in east Baghdad’s Rustamiya area, targeted against a mobile oil tanker, on Wednesday, wounding two persons, who were driven to a nearby hospital,” the security source said.

#4: “An IED blew off against a mobile oil tanker over a bridge in southern Baghdad’s Daura district on Wednesday, wounding its driver with a civilian that happened to be close to the venue of the attack, and causing material damage to the tanker, he added.

#5: He stressed that another IED blew off early in the day close to the Central Markets in east Baghdad’s Palestine Street, wounding 3 persons, who were driven to a nearby hospital also, along with causing damage to a number of civilian vehicles.

#6: A third IED blew off in east Baghdad’s Baladiyat District, wounding 3 persons, who were taken to a hospital, along with causing damage to a number of vehicles and shops,” the source concluded.


Thi Qar Prv:
#1: A Pakistani driver was injured on Tuesday morning when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military convoy in southeastern Iraq, police said. Iraqi police said the explosion happened on a road between Thi-Qar and Basra in the Abada river region, south of the city of Nasiriyah. It said the blast was caused by an explosively formed penetrator (EFP), a special type of shaped charge designed to penetrate armour effectively at standoff distances. No U.S. service members were injured in the blast, but a Pakistani driver sustained injuries as a result of the explosion. His condition was not immediately known.


Mosul:
#1: One policeman was shot dead by a group of gunmen near his home in the neighbourhood of al-Sadeeq.

#2: A second policeman was killed when a gunman opened fire on his car, near the al-Shaarin market in the centre of the city.

#3: A former employee of the al-Mosuliya satellite channel was killed on Tuesday by gunmen in western Mosul, according to a security source. “Unknown gunmen opened fire in a civilian to his head near his house in al-Rifaie neighborhood, western Mosul, killing him instantly and fled to an unknown place,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#4: One civilian was killed on Tuesday by an improvised explosive device blast in south of Mosul, a security source said. “An explosive device went off in front of a house in al-Bousief region, south of Mosul, killing the house’s owner,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: One soldier and a policeman were killed and three policemen were wounded in an armed attack on a checkpoint in south of Falluja, according to a security source. "An armed group launched on Tuesday an attack on a checkpoint in Ehsi neighborhood in al-Aameriya region, south of Falluja, killing a policeman and an army soldier and three policemen," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A NATO airstrike killed four guards working for a private security company in southern Afghan province of Helmand, officials said Wednesday. One more guard was injured in the strike in Gerishk district on Tuesday, said Mohammad Hakim Andar, provincial police chief. The men were providing security for a road construction firm in the region, he said. The military engaged a group of suspected militants in the area after an ISAF ground patrol was attacked, Johnson said. 'Following the engagement we heard allegations that four security guards were killed,' he said.

#2: Children aged between seven and nine were killed in a NATO air strike in northeast Afghanistan when foreign forces mistook them for insurgents, a police chief said Wednesday. The claim came after the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said late Tuesday it was probing claims of civilian casualties after its troops countered an attack on a base in Darah-Ye Pech district, Kunar province. "Yesterday in the morning, the coalition base came under rocket attack from nearby mountains," Khalilullah Ziayee, the police chief for the restive province, told AFP. "At around noon, the forces identified the location from where the rockets were fired and responded with air strikes. They hit children who had climbed the mountains to collect firewood. Nine children have been killed."

#3: A local Afghan official says a roadside bomb has killed four Afghan soldiers and their interpreter in Logar province south of Kabul. Din Mohammad Darwesh, a spokesman for the province, says the soldiers were on a joint patrol with U.S. forces on Tuesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Charkh district.

#4: The bodies of four of eight Afghan policemen who left their checkpoint and never returned were found Tuesday in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan, and NATO officials said.


DoD: Spc. Brian Tabada

DoD: Sgt. Kristopher J. Gould

DoD: Pfc. David R. Fahey Jr.

Fr/DM: Chief Warrant Officer Bruno Fauquembergue

1 comments:

Dancewater said...

Nato apologises for killing nine Afghan civilians

Gen Petraeus says the deaths "should never have happened"

Nato has apologised for killing nine civilians in an air strike in Afghanistan's north-eastern region.
Top Nato commander Gen David Petraeus said he was "deeply sorry" for the incident, which took place in the Pech district of Kunar province on Tuesday.

Local officials say nine boys, aged 12 and under, were killed while gathering firewood, according to AP news agency.
Earlier on Wednesday, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings as "merciless".

Mr Karzai warned that foreign forces would encounter "huge problems" if the "daily killing of innocent civilians" did not stop.

....
Over the weekend, an Afghan presidential team accused Nato forces of killing 65 civilians, including 40 children, in a separate incident in Kunar province, but Nato has disputed the claim.

**************

They say they are sorry, and before the week is over, they will do it again.