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


Saturday, October 29, 2011

War News for Saturday, October 29, 2011

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from an apparent friendly fire/gunshot wounds attack when an Afghan ANA soldier turned his weapon on the soldiers in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, October 29th. The Afghan AnA soldier also died in the attack. News reports these are Australian soldiers.


Coalition forces attacked in Kabul


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: An employee of the Iraqi Ministry of Science & Technology has been killed in an explosion against his car in west Baghdad on Saturday, an Iraqi security police source reported. "Tareq Hashem, an employee of the Ministry of Science & Technology, has been killed in an exposion in his car in west Baghdad's Saydiya district on Saturday, the security police source said, adding that 2 other persons, who happened to pass close to the blast have been injured.


Wassit Prv:
#1: Two goldsmiths have been killed and their shops stolen in the southern Iraq's Wassit Province by unknown gunmen on Saturday, a Wassit security source reported. "Two brothers, working as goldsmiths have been killed by unknown gunmen in Hafriya township, 105 km to the north of Kut, the center of Wassit Province, on Saturday," the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said the gunmen, who stole a large quantity of gold ornaments and other valuables, had escaped to an unknown destination.


Nassiriya:
#1: Fire extinguishers have managed to put off a large fire in an oil storage in southern Iraq's Nassiriya city, without causing losses, according to the Chairman of the Security Committee in southern Iraq's city of Nassirya, the Chairman of the Security Commission reported on Saturday. "The Fire Extinguishing Team has succeeded to put off a fire in an oil storage, close to Shatra township, 45 km to the north of Nassiriya, caused by an oil pipeline leakage, followed by a fire that was caused by unknown armed men," Sajjad al-Assadi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said that the security bodies had laid a special guards point close to the oil storage after the incident to protect it from similar acts.Nassirya, the center of Thi-Qar Province, is 365 km to the south of Baghdad.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War
#1: Insurgents attacked a convoy of Afghan and international troops on Friday in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan, setting off a gun battle that left about 30 militants dead, NATO said. The coalition did not say whether any Afghan or coalition forces were killed.

#2: At least 14 people, including foreign forces, were killed when a Taliban car bomber struck a US-run Nato convoy travelling through the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday. The attacker detonated his Toyota Sedan car at 11:20 am (0650 GMT) in the southwest of the city, and the area was now blocked by Afghan and international forces, said police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai. At least ten foreign forces, three civilians and a policeman were among the casualties. "The attack targeted an American Nato bus," said a Western military official on condition of anonymity. "There are 10 or 11 people, mostly Americans," he said, giving the death toll. Spokesman for the interior ministry Siddiq Siddiqui said that three civilians and a policeman had also been killed but he had no information on foreign forces. "It was a huge explosion, I saw at least ten bodies of foreign forces taken out of their capsized bus and evacuated by two helicopters," one witness told AFP at the scene.

#3: At around the same time in the eastern city of Asadabad in Kunar province, a female suicide bomber blew herself up outside a local branch of Afghanistan's spy agency, a spokesman for the Kunar provincial governor said. The woman struck outside the local operations centre for the National Directorate of Security (NDS), said spokesman Wasifullah Wasifi. "As a result of the explosion two guards of the operative directorate were wounded," he said.

#4: NATO says a man wearing an Afghan military uniform has turned his weapon on coalition and Afghan troops in the country's south, killing two members of the U.S.-led coalition. The coalition says the shooter also was killed in the incident Saturday in southern Afghanistan. The nationalities of those killed were not disclosed and the coalition did not provide any other details about the shooting.

#5: update - An attack Thursday by Taliban forces in Afghanistan left one man dead and seven others injured, including five Fort Carson soldiers, an Army spokesman confirmed. The injured soldiers are members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team. Maj. Kevin Toner, a spokesman for the unit, did not identify the soldiers but said they were hurt Thursday afternoon in the U.S. compound at Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar province. Toner said the soldiers, along with an Afghan soldier and an American civilian contractor, are expected to recover from their injuries. An Afghan interpreter died in the attack, Toner said.


DoD: Sgt. John A. Lyons

DoD: Staff Sgt. Stephen J. Dunning

3 comments:

Cervantes said...

U.S. now confirms 13 of its forces dead in the Kabul suicide attack.

Support our troops. Bring them home now.

Anonymous said...

the sad thing about the afghan war is that mr obamination speaks thats its ok to do war AND negligenciate it, I really doubt that he would even mention the events in this past week. Yes mr killer have soooo much blood in his hand and now with the dronning thing, shame on him, US is totally bankrupt and he pretends thats not the war cost. Wars make bad allocation of resources, the worst one, soooo expensive, but HE has the solution of course - thats dumb. Why afghan war still going on anyway??? The only good thing about this is that he WILL BE defeated in 2012, but the damage has already been done, will take decades to solve this.

Cervantes said...

I would not hope for Obama's defeat -- alas the Republicans love war even more.