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


Saturday, June 4, 2011

War News for Saturday, June 04, 2011

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier from small arms fire/gunshot wounds in the Lashkar Gah District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan on Friday June 3rd. Here's the ISAF release.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, May 3rd.

NATO is reporting the deaths of four ISAF soldiers from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, May 4th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: The individual responsible for Balad pro-government Al-Sahwa (Awakening) commander escaped an assassination attempt by sticky bomb in the center of Baghdad, police sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that "he was injured along with his companion."


Numaniya:
#1: An Iraqi policeman has been injured in attack on his patrol by a U.S. Army patrol north of Kut, the center of southern Iraq’s Wassit Province on Saturday, a Wassit police source reported. “A U.S. Army force had attacked an Iraqi police patrol on Saturday in Nu’maniya township, 40 km to the north of Kut, wounding a policeman,” the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Tikrit:
#1: The first bomb, hidden inside a fuel canister, detonated as worshippers were leaving the mosque in the tightly secured area of central Tikrit that is home to provincial government offices on the main Muslim day of prayer at around 0945 GMT. "The first attack killed 19 people and we treated 72 wounded," said a doctor at Tikrit hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity. A suicide bomb attack on the hospital, timed to coincide with an MP's visit with the victims, killed a further five and wounded three, he said, adding the lawmaker was unscathed but two of his bodyguards were among the dead.


Samarra:
#1: The suicide attack occurred about eight hours later in the evening, as lawmaker Mutasher al-Samarrai visited victims at the hospital. A suicide bomb attack on the hospital, timed to coincide with an MP's visit with the victims, killed a further five and wounded three, he said, adding the lawmaker was unscathed but two of his bodyguards were among the dead.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A foreigner has been shot dead by angry locals while visiting a province usually seen as one of Afghanistan's most peaceful after an altercation with a drug addict, a local senator told AFP Saturday. The man, who sources indicated was Italian, was visiting local emerald mines in Panjshir province, northeast of Kabul, with a woman on Friday when the confrontation with the drug addict occurred, said local senator Mohammad Faizi.

#2: Police say Pakistani security forces have killed 26 Islamist militants in a troubled tribal region near the Afghan border. Police official Bahadur Khan said the insurgents were targeted Saturday when they invaded from Afghanistan's Kunar province and opened fire on troops in the Nustrat Darra district. He said the troops suffered no casualties in the latest fighting.

#3: A US pilotless aircraft fired missiles into Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region and killed at least seven people, officials said on Saturday. The missiles targeted a compound of suspected militants late Friday night in Ghwakhwa area, some 10 kilometers from Wana, the center of South Waziristan.

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