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, August 6, 2011

War News for Saturday, August 06, 2011

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier from small arms fire/grenade attack in the Nad-e Ali (North) District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan on Friday, August 5th. Here's the ISAF soldier.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed area in southern Afghanistan on Friday, August 5th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed area in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, August 6th.


NATO: Helicopter Crashes in Eastern Afghanistan; Recovery Underway

NATO helicopter crashes in Afghanistan; at least 38 killed


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Ten military and police casualties were reported in a bomb blast that targeted a patrol units north of Baghdad, security sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the bomb exploded against a joint patrol north of Baghdad that resulted in six military and four police casualties, in addition to the damage of some vehicles.

#2: Police sources reported today that the well-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad was hit by a Katyousha rocket. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that no information was given on the human or material casualties resulting from this attack.


Hilla:
#1: An official says two inmates and one guard have been killed in a prison break in central Iraq. Justice Ministry spokesman Haider al-Saadi said Saturday that five other people were wounded late Friday when clashes erupted with the inmates at Hillah prison. Al-Saadi says at least one inmate escaped. He says four inmates and four guards were under investigation as a result of the jailbreak. He gave no more details.


Kirkuk:
#1: A U.S. Army patrol has become target for a hand-grenade attack southwest of northern Iraq’s oil-rich city of Kirkuk on Friday night, a Kirkuk police source reported on Saturday. “A group of unknown gunmen have tossed a hand-grenade on a U.S. Army patrol at 11:30 pm local time on Friday night (08:30 PM GMT), at the Celebrations Square southwest of Kirkuk,” setting fire to one of its vehicles, but causing no human casualties,” the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A NATO airstrike in southern Afghanistan killed eight civilians. The airstrike occurred in Helmand’s Nad Ali district after insurgents had attacked troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the area, said Nad Ali district police chief Shidi Khan. ISAF confirmed an airstrike was carried out after a coalition patrol came under attack and said it was investigating the incident after meeting local leaders.

#2: Insurgents opened fire on Afghan police at an anti-NATO rally in southern Afghanistan Friday, sparking a gunbattle that killed three civilians and a police officer, officials said. The Taliban fighters infiltrated the protest in the town of Qalat in the southern province of Zabul and shot dead a policeman, said provincial police chief Mohammad Nabi Ilham. The police responded by firing into the crowd of about 100 protesters gathered in the town bazaar, killing three civilians and wounding two others. "Our police didn't have any option but to fire back in self-defense," Ilham said. "When they fired back, the insurgents and the protesters ran from the area." The townspeople were protesting an overnight NATO operation that killed three suspected insurgents, including a local Taliban commander, Ilham said. The gunbattle broke out as policemen were taking the insurgents' bodies to the town morgue, he added.

#3: Afghan police killed 23 insurgents during a security operation in the Sayaad and Darzab districts of northern Jowzjan province, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Saturday. It said one policeman had been killed and that the operation was still ongoing.

#4: A joint operation on Thursday by Afghan and foreign forces in the Marja district of Helmand province killed five insurgents, the Helmand governor's office said on Saturday.

#5: Pakistani artillery killed six militants in an attack on their stronghold after a landmine blast wounded a soldier on patrol in the northwestern tribal region of Orakzai, government official Nauman Khan said. The death toll could not be independently verified and militants often dispute official accounts.


DoD: Spc. Barun Rai

DoD: Pfc. Cody G. Baker

DoD: Pfc. Gil I. Morales Del Valle

DoD: Capt. Waid C. Ramsey

DoD: Sgt. Anthony Del Mar Peterson

4 comments:

Cervantes said...

Ronald Reagan's Freedom Fighters -- in other words the same guys the U.S. is fighting now -- drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan in large part because they could shoot down helicopters. They had MANPADs courtesy of the Great Obfuscator, and now they're trying to do it with RPGs, which is tougher obviously, but if they get lucky a couple more times, fuggedaboudit.

Cervantes said...

One more thing -- 25 of the fatalities were SEALS. This was a very costly incident. (Wonder what they were up to of course -- must have been a high value target.)

Anonymous said...

Just thanks from a regular visitor for continuing to maintain this blog, even when both of our unending occupations have fallen from public awareness. Forgetfulness is one of the most powerful weapons of empire, and the constant witness of history its arrest warrant.

Anonymous said...

One of the 6 military casualties from the attack in baghdad was one of my good friends. he had just finished army ranger school and was on his third tour. he was 22 years old. he had only been in baghdad for 1 day when he was killed. I was lucky enough to talk with him 2 days before he was deployed. I miss him so very much.