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, August 3, 2011

War News for Wednesday, August 03, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, July 2nd.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Four Iraqis have been killed in two successive bomb attacks targeting a shop selling alcohol in western Baghdad, police and health officials said. A police officer said 13 other people were injured in the blasts, which occurred in the capital's Rissala neighbourhood. He said the first bomb went off near the shop, while the second came a few minutes later as police and residents rushed to the scene. Three policemen were among those killed.

Three policemen have been injured, 15 others including 7 civilians, were injured in an explosive charge blast close to an alcohol shop south of Baghdad, a security source reported on Wednesday.

#2: Three persons have been injured, when a Katusha rocket fell close to east Baghdad’s Rusafa Prison early on Wednesday, a security source reported. “A Katusha rocket fell close to east Baghdad’s Rusafa Prison, not far from the Interior Ministry’s Headquarters on Wednesday morning, wounding 3 civilians that happened to be close to the area where the rocket fell,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, giving no further details.

Iraq’s former Legislature, Iyad Jamaluddin, has been injured when a rocket fell on his house in Baghdad’s Jadiriya district on Tuesday night, a security source reported on Wednesday. “A rocket fell on Tuesday night on the house of former Legislature, Iyad Jamaluddin in central Baghdad’s Jadiriya district, seriously wounding him and setting his house on fire,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Two policemen were wounded when a Katyusha rocket landed in eastern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.


Hilla:
#1: Gunmen killed two taxi drivers late on Tuesday in middle of Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad, a local police source said.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: Two persons, one military officer, were killed and six wounded, 3 of them were soldiers, in a double bomb blasts in Abu Ghraib area, west Baghdad. The first explosion took place in front of billiard hall, while the second one occurred in the same place when army patrol arrived.


Tikrit:
#1: “An explosive charge blew of on Tuesday night against armed men, who were carrying it in their car in northern Tikrit, the center of Salahal-Din Province,” killing two of them and seriously wounding a third one,” the security source reported, charging that the armed men belong to al-Qaeda organization.


Samarra:
#1: In another incident, an explosive charge blew off on Wednesday morning against a police patrol, in central Samarra city of Salahal-Din Province, wounding a policeman and setting fire to a police car, the security source said.


Baiji:
#1: “Two other explosive charges blew off early on Wednesday against an electric pole, carrying high-tension power south of Beiji, also in Salahal-Din Province, bringing down the pole and damaging another.


Kirkuk:
#1: Two soldiers were gravely wounded today by a bomb blast directed against their patrol south of Kirkuk, security sources said.

#2: Gunmen opened fire late on Tuesday and killed an off-duty Iraqi army officer in southwest Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, a source from Kirkuk's police operation centre said.

#3: A sticky bomb attached to a civilian car seriously wounded one man in southern Kirkuk, a source from Kirkuk's police operation centre said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Afghan police during operations eliminated 14 Taliban and detained 43 more insurgents elsewhere in the country over the last 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. "Afghan National Police (ANP) with the assistance of the Afghan army and Coalition Forces launched 12 joint and independent operations over the past 24 hours in Nangarhar, Baghlan, Kandahar, Helmand, Maidan Wardak, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika and Paktia provinces," said the statement issued by Interior Ministry. "As a result of these operations, 14 armed insurgents were killed, four wounded and 43 other armed insurgents were arrested," Police also found and defused a total of 17 Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and anti-vehicle mines elsewhere in the country over the same period of time, the statement further said. In a separate incident, two more insurgents, who had the intention of planting an anti-vehicle mine along a road, were killed when their mine exploded prematurely in Dilaram district of the country's western Farah province on Tuesday, the statement added.

#2: A US drone strike targeting a vehicle in Pakistan’s north western tribal belt near the Afghan border killed four terrorists on Tuesday, security officials said. The missile attack, the second in two days, took place near Qutub Khel village, five kilometres east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan district.

#3: Two separate homemade bombs killed a young child and two nomads in southern Kandahar province on Tuesday night, the provincial government's media office said.


DoD: Pfc. Brice M. Scott

DoD: Staff Sgt. Leon H. Lucas Jr.

2 comments:

Dancewater said...

Iraqi government to sign agreement to keep some US troops in the country

I hope the evil shits, which now includes Obomba, do not get away with this.

Dancewater said...

lot of pictures showing up of US troops on patrol in Iraqi cities in July 2011.

no pictures of the innocent Iraqi lives they snuffed out last month.....