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, June 27, 2011

War News for Monday, June 27, 2011

Channel 6 News is reporting the deaths of two U.S. soldiers while conducting operations in an undisclosed location in northern Iraq on Sunday, June 26th.

The DoD is reporting the death of Spc. Nicholas C. D. Hensley at Landstuhl, Germany on Friday, June 24th. He was wounded from an IED blast in Kandahar, Afghanistan on Wednesday, June 15th.

The DND/CF is reporting the death of a Canadian ISAF soldier from non-combat related wounds at a coalition forward operating base in Kandahar City on Saturday, June 25th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, June 25th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, June 25th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, June 26th.

The Spanish MoD is reporting the deaths of two Spanish ISAF soldiers from an IED blast in Qala-i-Naw, Badghis Province, Afghanistan on Sunday, June 26th.Three additional soldiers were wounded in the attack. Here's the ISAF release.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, June 26th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, June 26th.


Worries Grow in Berlin about US Afghanistan Pull-Out


Reported security incidents

Basra:
#1: Katusha rocket fell close to southern Iraq’s Basra refinery on Sunday afternoon, whilst police forces managed to uncover two other rockets, ready for launching towards the same target, in an agricultural area south of Basra’s Zubair township, a security source reported on Monday. “South Iraq’s Refinery in Shueiba township, 25 km to the south of Basra, was attacked by a Katusha rocket, causing no human or material losses,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: A civilian, belonging to Iraq’s al-Shabak Community, has been killed by unknown gunmen east of northern Iraq’s city of Mosul on Monday, a Ninewa security source reported. “An group of unknown gunmen have killed a civilian, belonging to al-Shabak Community, while driving his private car close to Bartilla township, 30 km to the east of Mosul,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Monday. He said that “the victim, owner of a mortgage shop, was attacked by the gunmen, killing him instantly.”

#2: Three sanitation workers have been killed and three policemen injured in a booby-trapped car explosion in eastern Mosul on Monday, a Ninewa security source reported. “A booby-trapped car, parked on the road in eastern Mosul, blew up on Monday, targeting a police patrol, killing 3 cleaning workers and wounding 3 of the patrol’s policemen,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Afghanistan says the Pakistani military is behind recent deadly rocket attacks, but Islamabad says it is not responsible. Aminulllah Amarkhil, Afghan chief of eastern border police, said Monday that Pakistani military forces fired 35 pieces of artillery in Kunar province Sunday that, primary reports indicate, killed 20 civilians. Amarkhil said the rocket attacks began at 4 p.m. and last until midnight. Pakistani forces have been firing rockets on five districts of Kunar province, causing villagers to leave their homes, the police official said.

#2-3: One bomb planted by the side of a road in Ghazni province, southeast Afghanistan, hit a minibus early on Monday morning, the interior ministry said. 'Four innocent civilians, including two children, were martyred in the blast,' said the ministry. A second bomb struck a car in a separate area of the same province, killing three, it added.

#4: Thirty-two Taliban fighters have been killed and 25 wounded in the last 24 hours, during an operation in the western Afghanistan province of Badghi, the Afghan army said Sunday. “The operation was intensified last night and since then there are over 57 Taliban fighters killed, wounded and captured,” army commander General Shahzada — who goes by one name — said. “Unfortunately, four Afghan army soldiers have been killed and three others wounded during the operation since last night”.


DoD: Spc. Nicholas C. D. Hensley

DND/CF: Master Corporal Francis Roy

1 comments:

Dancewater said...

The senior intelligence official responsible for Tony Blair's notorious dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction proposed using the document to mislead the public about the significance of Iraq's banned weapons.

Sir John Scarlett, who as head of the Joint Intelligence Committee was placed "in charge" of writing the September 2002 dossier, sent a memo to Blair's foreign affairs adviser referring to "the benefit of obscuring the fact that in terms of WMD Iraq is not that exceptional".

The memo, released under the Freedom of Information Act, has been described as one of the most significant documents on the dossier yet published.

More about those fucking liars