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


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

War News for Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The DoD is reporting the death of a Airmen which has previously been unreported by the military. The soldiers died from non-combat related incident in Parwan province, Afghanistan on Thursday, October 13th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb targeting a traffic police patrol went off in the Ur district of northeastern Baghdad, killing a traffic policeman and wounding three other people including a policeman, police and hospital sources said.

#2: A roadside bomb targeting a traffic police patrol blew up and wounded four people, including a traffic policeman, in the Zaafaraniya district of southeastern Baghdad, police and hospital sources said.

#3: A sticky bomb attached to a traffic police vehicle went off and wounded five people, including two policemen, in the Baladiyat district of eastern Baghdad, police and hospital sources said.


Iskandariya:
#1: A bomb hidden inside a water container and planted inside the home of a former member of Mehdi Army militia exploded, killing his wife and son, late on Monday on the northern outskirts of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

A group of unknown gunmen have attacked two houses in Iskandariya township of west Iraq's Babel Province, killing the wife and son of one of the owners of one of the two houses, a Babel police source reported on Tuesday. "The first house belongs to a citizen, Ali al-Gureity, in the Martrys district of Iskanadariya township, 50 km to the north of Hilla, the center of Babel Province. The owner's wife and son were killed, and damage inflicted upon nearby houses," the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said that the second attack took place in Muthanna district of the same township, causing material damage to the attacked house, but no human casualties.


Kurdistan:
#1: Turkish tanks and armored vehicles crossed into northern Iraq headed in the direction of a Kurdish militant camp, Turkish security sources announced last night. The incursion came as cross-border operations continued in the wake of last week’s attack by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters that killed 24 Turkish soldiers. The armored column, with hundreds of troops, was moving towards a militant camp at Haftanin, around 20 km from the Habur border post and near the Iraqi city of Zakho, the sources said. Several hundred PKK fighters were believed to be based at Haftanin, the sources said. Warplanes took off earlier from bases in Diyarbakir and Malatya to launch airstrikes on the camp as the latest phase of operations began on Monday afternoon.


Kirkuk:
#1: Gunmen stormed a real estate office and killed the owner late on Monday in central Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A US-led helicopter operated by NATO has been damaged following a militant attack in central Afghanistan, Press TV reports. According to a statement realeased by NATO headquarter in Afghanistan, the helicopter sustained damages after it was hit twice by Taliban militants in Alasay district in the central province of Kapisa Monday afternoon. Following the attack, the chopper was forced to land in a nearby base but none of its crew suffered injuries, the report said.

#2: On Monday, there were also reports of another crash of a US-led NATO helicopter in the northeastern province of Kunar.

#3: At least four people were killed Tuesday in a roadside bombing in a district of north-western Pakistan along the Afghan border, a government official said. The bomb was planted in the Ghura Banda area near Samar Bagh in Lower Dir district, said Fazal Karim, an official in the district police office. He said the identities of the victims were not immediately known, given the remoteness of the bomb site.

#4: Eleven insurgents were killed by Afghan National Police and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces during three joint operations on Sunday and Monday in the surrounding areas of Kabul, Baghlan and Ghazni provinces, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement. Eleven insurgents were detained. It gave no further details.


DoD: Sgt. Paul A. Rivera

DoD: Lance Cpl. Jordan S. Bastean

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