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


Thursday, September 1, 2011

War News for Thursday, September 01, 2011

The Georgian MoD is reporting the death of a Georgian ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack presumably in Helmand province, Afghanistan on Wednesday, August 31st.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, August 31st. At this time we consider this a new death and not the death reported by the Georgian MoD pending details.


US troops' first fatality-free month since 2003

US troops face new threat in Iraq


Reported security incident

Baghdad:
#1: Five soldiers and three civilians were wounded in bomb blast west of Baghdad, police sources said here. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that a bomb was implanted on the main road in Abu Ghraib area, west Baghdad, which exploded targeting a military patrol. The explosion resulted in wounding five soldiers and three civilians who were near the explosion site. One of the military vehicles was damaged.

#2: Three civilians have been killed and 21 others injured in a booby-trapped car explosion in southwest Baghdad on Wednesday night, a security source reported on Thursday. “A booby-trapped car, parked on a roadside in southwest Baghdad’s al-Jihad district, has blown off on Wednesday night, killing 3 civilians and wounding 21 others,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: An Iraqi Army officer has been killed and two soldiers were injured while dismantling an improvised explosive device (IED) in southern Baghdad on Thursday, a police source reported. “The incident took place in southern Baghdad’s Hor-Rajab district, when an officer, with a lieutenant rank was killed and two soldiers were injured while trying to dismantle an IED that blew off on Thursday,” the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Dilouya:
#1: An Iraqi soldier has been killed and two others were injured in an armed attack in Dilo’iya area in Salahal-Din Province on Thursday, a police source reported. “A group of unknown armed men have launched an attack on an Iraqi Army patrol, east of Dilo’iya area, 90 km to the north of Baghdad, killing a soldier and seriously wounding two others,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: Fourteen prisoners charged with "terrorism" escaped from a prison in the north Iraq city of Mosul on Thursday, a police officer said, in the latest jailbreak in Iraq. "Thirty-five prisoners tried to escape from a prison in Al-Faisaliyah" in central Mosul, said Colonel Mohammed al-Jaburi, of the Nineveh province police. Security forces "arrested 21 of them, but 14 others were able to escape from the prison," Jaburi said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Unknown gunmen have killed at least four people and injured one more in Kurram Agency in northwestern Pakistan, Press TV reports. The militant attack started on Thursday when the assailants opened fire on a vehicle in Lower Kurram Tehsil of the agency, officials and local residents said. Local people also fired at the militants, as the fighting still continues in the area between local tribesmen and the attackers.

#2: Two Polish soldiers and a military employee were minor injured as a result of shelling the Base Warrior on Wednesday night - the press service of Polish Military Contingent in Afghanistan informed PAP (Polish Press Agency). Immediately after the shelling, counter fire was conducted. Polish soldiers responded with fire from 152 mm Gun-Howitzer DANA.

MoD: Sergeant Barry Weston

GA/MoD: junior sergeant Rezo Beridze

3 comments:

Cervantes said...

Hoo boy:

"A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi. . . .

Philip Alston, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said in a communication to American officials dated 12 days after the March 15, 2006, incident that autopsies performed in the Iraqi city of Tikrit showed that all the dead had been handcuffed and shot in the head. Among the dead were four women and five children. The children were all 5 years old or younger."

Cervantes said...

There's even a photo of the dead kids with the story. This is mighty ugly.

Dancewater said...

I remember when the incident described in the WikiLeaks cable happened - the local Iraqis said it happened exactly as the cable describes.

And, of course, the UN special rapporteur reported on it.

The US military knew that 10 people were executed, and DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT IT.

All a part of bringing the Iraqi people the freedom of the grave and the democracy of death.

I hold thewiz directly responsible for these murders. May the dead children come and visit him in his dreams - and visit all the other war-loving, blood-drinking, evil Americans who supported this evil.

They are fucking evil and they make me sick.