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, October 28, 2011

War News for Friday, October 28, 2011

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by the military. Sgt. 1st Class David G. Robinson died from unreported causes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, October 25th. He was supporting Operation New Dawn (MNF)

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, October 28th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Iraqi police and health officials say the death toll of a twin bombing in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad has risen to 32. The two blasts, which took place Thursday evening at a music store, wounded 71 other people, the officials said. A second bomb exploded minutes after the first, targeting rescue workers and onlookers. Two police officials said the first explosion, at a music store shortly after 7 p.m., killed two people. The second bomb struck four minutes later, as rescue workers and others rushed to the scene, the officials said.

#2: A sniper shot at a traffic police patrol, killing one policeman and wounding another in Baghdad's southern Saidiya district, police and health sources said.

#3: A roadside bomb went off near an Iraqi army patrol, wounding four civilians in southwestern Baghdad, police and health sources said.

#4: A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol, wounding four civilians in Baghdad's southeastern Zaafaraniya district, police and health sources said.

#5: A roadside bomb blew up near a traffic police patrol, wounding two policemen and one civilian in Baghdad's northeastern Sadr City district, police and health sources said.

#6: A general was hit today with grave wounds following an attack by unknown gunmen mid of Baghdad , security sources said. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the unknown gunmen used weapons equipped with silencers, which led to his grave wounds.


Iskandariya:
#1: A roadside bomb went off near a motorcycle cart, killing the driver and a child and wounding two others in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Jebla:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded near a house and wounded the brother of the home's owner in the town of Jbela, 65 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Basra:
#1: Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. forces raided a house and arrested six members of the Sadr movement in northern Basra, 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad, security sources and local officials said.

Security forces arrested two journalists, Iraqi and US, for having photography without official permission, media source said here today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the US journalist Kameran Gharib, who is also a Kurdish, and an Iraqi called Ammar Saleh were arrested for photographing a popular souk (market), pointing out that they were mistreated and their camera was confiscated.


Samarra:
#1: Gunmen threw a hand grenade at a military vehicle, killing one soldier on Wednesday in the city of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, a hospital source said.


Kirkuk:
#1: A sticky bomb attached to a car went off and wounded the driver on Wednesday in the city of Kirkuk, 250 km(155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Mosul:
#1: Police said they found the body of a man who had been shot in the head and chest two days after his abduction in the city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad.

#2: Three militants were killed in a clashes with Iraqi security forces late on Wednesday in Mosul, police said.

Iraqi police killed three gunmen in west Mosul , security sources said here today. The source told Aswat al-iraq that clashes took place this morning that led to killing three gunmen. The gunmen shot fire against a police check point, which obliged the latter to retaliate and killing three of them.

#3: Security sources announced here today that a curfew was imposed early this morning upon information of suicidal attacks, at a time some are planning for demonstrations denouncing random arrest in the province. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the curfew time is not limited.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: An Afghan interpreter was killed and eight other people wounded in a Taliban attack on a US-run base in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, NATO said Friday. Four attackers were killed in the assault on the civilian-military base housing the local provincial reconstruction team in what was the Taliban capital before the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the militia from power. Armed with guns, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades, the attackers opened fire from an empty building near the compound. "One American civilian contractor and two Afghan security guards were injured, one Afghan interpreter was killed, and five ISAF service members were slightly wounded as a result of the attack," the military said.

An attack on two southern Afghan bases used by foreign troops ended on Friday after four insurgents were killed, local police and a spokesman for NATO-led coalition forces said. The attack on a military and civilian provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar province began on Thursday and lasted more than 15 hours.

It took Afghan police and U.S. troops four hours to thwart the assault on Camp Nathan Smith, according to Agence France-Presse. Operating from a compound across the street from the Provincial Reconstruction team headquarters, the insurgents fired multiple rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at the base, NATO said in a news release from Kandahar City. At the same time, two suicide bombers driving vehicles were foiled when they tried to breach the base. They did not cause any damage or injuries to U.S. or Afghan forces before blowing themselves up.

Insurgents attacked another former Canadian base in Panjwaii District on Thursday that had been run by American troops since July of this year. No injuries to U.S. or Afghan forces were reported.

#2: Four Nato armour vehicles and two trawlers reduced to ashes when two blasts occurred in two trawlers here at Torkham parking lot on Thursday. However no causality was reported, official sources informed. They said two consecutive blasts occurred at 8:10 pm in two Afghanistan-bound trawlers bearing registration numbers B-2410 and Z-6056. They said the trawlers were loaded with allied forces armour vehicles, which caught fire after the blasts. The Fire spread within no time and engulfed the loaded four armour vehicles turning them to ashes, sources said. They said as soon as fire fighters reached, the trawlers and the armour vehicles were completely burnt.

#3: Several insurgents were killed during a security operation conducted throughout the week by the Afghan National Police and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the Uruzgan province, south-west of Kabul, the coalition said in a statement.

#4: A suicide bomber travelling on foot blew himself up next to a police vehicle on the outskirts of the town of Risalpur in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, killing two policemen and wounding one, police officials said.


DoD: Sgt. 1st Class David G. Robinson

1 comments:

Dancewater said...

Under the Bush administration, Gaddafi gave up his WMD program and cooperated with the Bush administration in it’s “war on terror”. Now, Gaddafi is dead, killed by his own countrymen in a civil war that was made possible by the US/NATO weapons and bombings. As a matter of fact, NATO bombed Gaddafi just before he was caught, tortured and murdered.
That sure showed the world what will happen if a country gives up it’s WMDs and cooperates with the US government.
But I am wondering – where is thewiz???? He touted Gaddafi’s giving up WMDs as proof of the success of Bush’s war of aggression on Iraq, and yet today, Gaddafi is dead.
It must be a real quandary for those blood-sucking, blood-thirsty Americans. It is hard to tout the “success” of their bloody ways when the recent previous “success” itself becomes the “enemy” of the latest war. On top of that, they are a bunch of racists, so how can they cheer for more and more wars when the man leading the wars has brown skin???
By the way, FAUX news is ignoring the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. They don’t even mention Iraq.
Well, Iraq and Libya have something in common: neither country was a threat to any other country. And that’s why the US started it’s war of aggression on them: the US only attacks the weak.