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


Friday, September 2, 2011

War News for Friday, September 02, 2011





Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen shot dead Jameel Shihab Ahmed, head of administrative affairs in the Higher Education Ministry, in Baghdad's western district of Amiriya, police said.


Tuz Khurmato:
#1: Gunmen attacked a government-backed Sunni militia checkpoint and shot dead one member in Tuz Khurmato, 170 km (105 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Baiji:
#1: Gunmen attacked a government-backed Sunni militia checkpoint late on Wednesday, killing two members and wounding five others in Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen kidnapped and killed a taxi driver in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. The attackers dumped the driver's body in a cemetery.

#2: A roadside bomb wounded an Iraqi soldier when it exploded near his patrol in western Mosul, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Gunmen sprayed municipal officer Farouq al- Gertani's car with bullets, wounding him and killing two of his bodyguards, including his brother, near the town of al-Mashahda, north of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A suicide car bomb blast outside a police station killed three people and wounded more than a dozen in the northwestern town of Lakki Marwat, police said. The blast also damaged nearby houses and shops. Several police officials were among the wounded

#2: Suspected Taliban militants fired on a vehicle in the tribal region of lower Kurram, in the country's northwest on the Afghan border, killing seven Shi'ite Muslims, including six from the same family, security officials said.


DoD: Pfc. Alberto L. Obod Jr.

DoD: Sgt. Devin J. Daniels

DoD: Sgt. Colby L. Richmond


4 comments:

Dancewater said...

It looks like that crime that happened in March 2006 in Ishaqi, Iraq (mass murder of civilians, five of them children) - will continue to be ignored by the US corporate media, and our politicians.

GOD DAMN THEM ALL TO HELL.

Dancewater said...

“It would appear that when the MNF (Multinational Forces) approached the house,” Alston wrote, “shots were fired from it and a confrontation ensued.” Afterwards, “troops entered the house, handcuffed all residents and executed all of them.” Mr. Faiz Hratt Khalaf, (aged 28), his wife Sumay’ya Abdul Razzaq Khuther (aged 24), their three children Hawra’a (aged 5) Aisha ( aged 3) and Husam (5 months old), Faiz’s mother Ms. Turkiya Majeed Ali (aged 74), Faiz’s sister (name unknown), Faiz’s nieces Asma’a Yousif Ma’arouf (aged 5 years), and Usama Yousif Ma’arouf (aged 3 years), and a visiting relative Ms. Iqtisad Hameed Mehdi (age 23) were killed during the raid.

Alston’s letter reveals that a US airstrike was launched on the house presumably to destroy the evidence, but that “autopsies carried out at the Tikrit Hospital’s morgue revealed that all corpses were shot in the head and handcuffed.”

Link here

Dancewater said...

AND NO ONE IS HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE ATROCITIES!!!

NOT THEN, AND NOT NOW.

Dancewater said...

It looks like the Iraqi government is going to investigate the murders in Ishaqi:

Iraq opens investigation into US killings

Negotiations to keep US troops in Iraq came under strain yesterday in the wake of WikiLeaks' release of a UN letter alleging that an Iraqi family was handcuffed and shot in the head in a 2006 raid by American forces.

Iraq's government said yesterday it will investigate the allegations. And some officials said that the document was reason enough for Iraq to force the American military to leave instead of signing a deal allowing troops to stay beyond a year-end departure deadline.

On 15 March 2006, US troops searching for an al-Qa'ida cell converged on a house in Ishaqi, about 50 miles north of Baghdad. The US military said the troops were hit by gunfire from inside the house, and called in an airstrike after a gun battle, destroying the house.

Twelve days later, UN investigator Philip Alston sent a letter to US officials saying autopsies had "revealed that all corpses were shot in the head and handcuffed". Mr Alston provided no details about the source of his information.

*****************

Here's hoping they find some small measure of justice - and that US troops do actually leave Iraq this year!