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


Monday, October 10, 2011

War News for Monday, October 10, 2011

News is reporting the death is a Czech ISAF soldier at the Olomouc hospital in the Czech Republic on Sunday, October 9th. The soldier, Adrian Werner, was originally wounded from small arms fire/gunshot wound at a base in Wardak province, Afghanistan on Wednesday, July 6th.

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, October 8th.


US Drone Computers Come Under Attack

British wont leave Afghanistan: Bucknall


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb went off near a police patrol and wounded three policemen and two civilians in Baghdad's central Nahdha area, an interior ministry source said. Another police source said the explosion killed one civilian and wounded six, including three policemen.

#2: A roadside bomb wounded three people in southeastern Baghdad, an interior ministry source said.

#3: The source told Aswat al-Iraq that unknown gunmen shot a civilian with weapons equipped with silencers and fled the scene.

#4: In another incident, a Cabinet official escaped death by an assassination attempt in southwest Baghdad, the source added.


Mahaweel:
#1: Gunmen shot at a police check point and wounded four policemen on Sunday night in the town of Mahaweel, 60 km (35 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Basra:
#1: Two Iraqi army engineers were killed by a landmine in a separate incident on Saturday when they tried to defuse it in a town near Basra, 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad.


Kirkuk:
#1: Police and Kurdish security forces found the body of an Iraqi contractor strangled inside a house late on Sunday in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police and Kurdish security sources said. The contractor had been kidnapped a day earlier, the sources said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A sticky bomb attached to a car killed an off duty police officer late on Sunday in the town of Khalidiya, 83 km (50 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least 15 Afghan militants and a Pakistani soldier have been killed during clashes in Pakistan's Dir tribal region near the border with Afghanistan, Press TV reports. Armed Afghan militants stormed a Pakistani security check post in northwestern Pakistan late Sunday and killed a security man and wounded two more. Security forces launched a massive counterattack against militants and managed to kill 15 militants.

#2: Unknown armed men torched two oil tankers in Bolan district of Balochistan province in Southwest Pakistan. Police said that the Afghanistan-bound tankers were coming from Karachi when armed men riding a motorbike intercepted them and set them ablaze.

#3: Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan following a statement on Monday said, at least five Taliban militants were killed during Afghan National Army operations across the country for the past 24 hours. The statement further added, at least five Taliban militants were injured and five other militant suspects were arrested by Afghan National Army soldiers during the operations. According to reports, at least 2 Afghan national Army soldiers were killed and 10 others were injured during the operations. The operations were conducted by Afghan national Army soldiers in various regions of Afghanistan including Paktia, Khost, Wardak Province, Paktika, Kandahar and western Herat provinces, to clear the militants from the areas.

#4: Two civilians were killed and another was injured as a rocket fired by insurgents hit a residential area in Kunar province with Assadabad its capital 185 km east of Afghan capital city Kabul on Monday, an official said. "A rocket fired by anti-government insurgents slammed into a residential area in Narai district this morning leaving two persons including a woman and a child dead," spokesman for provincial administration Wasihullah Wasifi told Xinhua. Another child was injured in the attack, he added.


News: Adrian Werner

DoD: Lance Cpl. Benjamin W. Schmidt

DoD: Spc. Ricardo Cerros Jr.

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