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


Monday, April 11, 2011

War News for Monday, April 11, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, April 10th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Earlier Monday, four civilians were killed and 11 others wounded when a minibus hit a roadside bomb in southeastern Baghdad, officials said. Among the dead was a 10-year girl.

#2: “An IED blew off close to Shahriar Statue in central Baghdad’s Abu-Nawas Street, wounding two civilians and causing damage to a civilian vehicle,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: The source also said that another IED blew off early in the day in eastern Baghdad’s Shu’ala district, wounding 4 civilians and causing damage to a truck.

#4: Head of the Editing Secretariat at the Media Directorate of Iraq’s Parliament was killed and two others were wounded in a bombing in Al Hurriya region, northwestern Baghdad.

#5: In Dora, a sniper shot dead a policeman on duty.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A roadside bomb on the main road in Baghdad in the region of Jisr Diyala, wounded 13 civilians and damaged a number of cars.

#2: A bombing, western Baaquba, wounded a civilian.


Diwaniya:
#1: Three Katyusha rockets have targeted a U.S. Army camp in southern Iraq’s Diwaniya city on Sunday, and one of them fell on a citizen’s house, a security source said. “Two Katyusha rockets fell on Sunday night on the U.S. Echo camp, 3 km to the west of Diwaniya, but losses were not known,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said the third rocket fell on a citizen’s house in central Diwaniya, close to the Political Prisoners Institution, causing damage, whilst security bodies and fire-extinguishing vehicles headed towards the venue of the attack, but failed to give further details.


Taji:
#1: “An IED, planted behind the so-called Nasr Institution in northern Baghdad’s Taji district, close to the Baghdad-Mosul Railwlay line, blew off when a train passed through the area, causing material damage to the train and wounding three passengers,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Up to six people were killed and some 20 others wounded in double car bomb explosions at a marketplace in the city of Fallujah, in west of Baghdad on Monday, a local police source told Xinhua. "Our latest reports said that a total of six people were killed and 20 wounded by the two car bombing attacks in Fallujah," the source said on condition of anonymity. An officer from the team of the explosives experts, a soldier and a policeman were among the killed along with three civilians, he said. The wounded were three policemen, two soldiers and 15 civilians, the source added. The incident took place near a marketplace in central Fallujah when a booby-trapped car detonated while a team of explosives experts were defusing the bombs, the source said. Two minutes later, another explosion occurred by a second car bomb parked close to the site of the first explosion, the source added.

In the city of Fallujah, police chief Brig. Gen. Mahmoud al-Issawi said a parked car packed with explosives blew up at about 11:00 a.m. as police were trying to defuse it. The blast killed two policemen. About 15 minutes later, the second car bomb exploded about 150 meters (yards) away, targeting people gathered near the scene of the first blast, Al-Issawi said. That blast killed four civilians and injured 20, including two policemen.

#2: He said that a third blast, caused by an explosive charge planted on the main highway passing through central Falluja, took place. The blast was aimed at a police patrol, but the casualties were yet unknown.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least three people were killed and eight others injured in a blast on a passenger bus in the northwestern tribal area of Pakistan, local media reported on Monday. According to local Urdu TV ARY News, a planted device hit a passenger bus on its way in Kurram agency, one of the seven semi- autonomous agencies bordering Afghanistan in northwest Pakistan. Kurram agency is considered as a safe haven of militants as many arrested miscreants come from this area.

#2: A roadside bomb killed three tribal elders in western Afghanistan on Sunday, possibly in retaliation for their cooperation with the government. The men were driving to a meeting with villagers and other tribal elders to discuss what sort of projects the Afghan government and international donors should fund when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, killing all of them, officials said. One of the dead, Sayyed Ahmed, was the head of the group of tribal elders who organised the meeting, said Abdul Basir Kherkywi, the head of Farah province�s local council.


DoD: Spc. Keith T. Buzinski

4 comments:

-blessed holy socks, the non-perishable-zealot said...

Can you do anything to the Anunaki, the space beings who started U.S.? Can you do anything to the power elite who control the world? Can you do anything to the stanky BO who sits in the White House following orders FROM the power elite? Thot not. Stop being lemmings in this zooillogical garden and following the whorizontal, please. I have problems with rules. God blessa youse -Fr. Sarducci, ol SNL

Dancewater said...

The above post should be removed, since it does not make sense.

Dancewater said...

Two US troops killed in Afghanistan by drone fire.

At least the drone operators are shooting at combatants instead of unarmed civilians. I wonder if the drone operator said SWEET TARGET!!! just before he wasted them?

Dancewater said...

Anatomy of an Afghan War Tragedy

Nearly three miles above the rugged hills of central Afghanistan,
American eyes silently tracked two SUVs and a pickup truck as they
snaked down a dirt road in the pre-dawn darkness.

The vehicles, packed with people, were 3 1/2 miles from a dozen U.S.
special operations soldiers, who had been dropped into the area hours
earlier to root out insurgents. The convoy was closing in on them.

At 6:15 a.m., just before the sun crested the mountains, the convoy halted.

"We have 18 pax [passengers] dismounted and spreading out at this
time," an Air Force pilot said from a cramped control room at Creech
Air Force Base in Nevada, 7,000 miles away. He was flying a Predator
drone remotely using a joystick, watching its live video transmissions
from the Afghan sky and radioing his crew and the unit on the ground.

The Afghans unfolded what looked like blankets and kneeled. "They're
praying. They are praying," said the Predator's camera operator,
seated near the pilot.

By now, the Predator crew was sure that the men were Taliban. "This is
definitely it, this is their force," the cameraman said. "Praying? I
mean, seriously, that's what they do."

"They're gonna do something nefarious," the crew's intelligence
coordinator chimed in.

++++++++++++++++

It is NOT a tragedy when they do it again and again and again and again and again. This is the article where the drone operator said SWEET TARGET before they shot up about two dozen innocent Afghans.