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


Wednesday, October 26, 2011

War News for Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The DoD is reporting the death of a soldier which has previously been unreported by the military. The soldiers died from an undisclosed cause in Tallil (airbase), Iraq on Friday, October 21st.

The DoD is reporting another new death previously unreported by the military. Capt. Shawn P. T. Charles died from a non-combat related illness in in San Antonio, Texas on Sunday, October 23rd. He was supporting Operation New Dawn (MNF)


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Three civilians have been injured in an explosive charge blast in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street on Wednesday, a security source reported. "An explosive charge blew up on the roadside, close to a restaurant in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street, wounding 3 civilians," the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A roadside bomb went off near an Iraqi army patrol, wounding four people, a police source said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A roadside bomb targeting a car carrying three leaders of the government-backed Sahwa militia went off, killing one and wounding the other two on the northern outskirts of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.

#2: A roadside bomb targeting an Oil Police patrol blew up and wounded four policemen in central Baquba, police said.

#3: At the same time, a parked motorcycle-cart bomb went off in central Baquba but no casualties were reported, police said.

#4: A roadside bomb went off near a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims, wounding seven, near Muqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, a police spokesman said. Another police source said four were wounded.


Iskandariya:
#1: In Iskandiriyah, 50 kilometers south of Baghdad, "unknown armed men attacked the house of Safaa al-Mussawi, a Friday prayer leader, with bombs" during the night, a police first lieutenant said. The cleric "and his son were seriously injured and his wife and daughter were killed," the officer said. A source in the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, confirmed the attack on Mussawi's home.

Unknown assailants raided the home of a representative of Iraq's most revered Shiite Cleric and top religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hosseini al-Sistani, in the country's Southwestern province of Babil Tuesday night and killed his wife and son.

#2: The mayor of Iskandiriyah was killed on Tuesday night, a police source said. "Armed men killed the mayor of the Iskandiriyah sub-district yesterday night. His name was Ali al-Massudi, from the Sadr movement," the source said, referring to the movement of anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

#3: Also in Iskandariyah one Iraqi soldier was killed and another wounded in an attack by gunmen on a patrol in the area, an army captain said.

#4: Two militants were killed when a bomb they were carrying exploded in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, an officer at Babil police headquarters said.


Kut:
#1: The wife of a policeman in the city of Kut, the center of Wassit Province, has been attacked by unknown gunmen who killed her by knife early on Wednesday, a police source reported. "A group of unknown armed men broke through the house of a Wassit policeman in central Kut at dawn Wednesday, killing his 28-year-old wife by knife and escaping to an unknown destination," the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Jurf al Sakhar:
#1: Gunmen attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint, killing two soldiers and wounded one, in Jurf al-Sakhar late on Tuesday, a security source in Babil province said.

#2: A roadside bomb killed a member of the government-backed Sunni Sahwa militia and wounded two others when it blew up near their vehicle in Jurf al-Sakhar, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, a security source in Babil province said.


Mussayab:
#1: Gunmen opened fire and killed a civilian in front of his house in Mussayab, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad late on Tuesday, a security source in Babil province said.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol, seriously wounding two soldiers, in Abu Ghraib on the western outskirts of Baghdad, police said.


Kurdistan:
#1: Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq overnight and some 500 soldiers have crossed the border with armoured vehicles, military and security sources told Reuters on Tuesday, in an escalation of hostilities. The Turkish forces were advancing towards a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camp at Haftanin, around 20 km from the Habur border post and north of the town of Dahuk. The sources described it as the busiest military activity along the border since the Turkish army launched cross-border activities last week in response to a PKK attack on Turkish forces which killed 24 soldiers in Hakkari, bordering Iraq.


Mosul:
#1: "A car bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol in Al-Zuhour neighborhood, killing three soldiers and wounding three civilians" in Mosul in Iraq's north, a first lieutenant in the Mosul police said.

#2: "Another car bomb exploded ... in the same neighborhood, killing two civilians and wounding 16," he said, adding that the bombs went off about 9:00 am (0600 GMT). A doctor at Mosul General Hospital confirmed the deaths, saying: "We received five bodies, including three soldiers."

#3: A roadside bomb exploded and wounded two street cleaners in eastern Mosul, a police source said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A bomb hidden inside a fuel truck in a central Afghan province exploded as scores of people gathered around the vehicle to collect fuel that was leaking, killing at least five in a blast that shattered a period of relative quiet in the war-ravaged nation, officials said Wednesday. The explosion, around 8 p.m. Tuesday, occurred in Parwan province, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the capital, Kabul. Kabir Amiri, who oversees all of Kabul's hospitals, says 47 people were wounded.

At least 10 Afghan civilians were killed and 35 wounded on Tuesday night in the Bagram district of northern Parwan province after a small bomb punctured a hole in the side of a fuel tanker that was later engulfed by a large blaze, said Roshna Khalid, a spokeswoman for the provincial governor.

#2: Afghan security forces and foreign troops killed 15 insurgents, wounded one and detained 20 in eight joint operations in seven provinces in the past 24 hours, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

#3: Gunmen shot and killed two former members of a local anti-Taliban peace committee in a residential area of Tank town, security officials said.

#4: Also, three security personnel were wounded when a remote-controlled roadside bomb detonated next to an army vehicle on the outskirts of the town of Tank in northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, local military officials said.

#5: A remote-controlled roadside bomb detonated in the Samarbagh area of the Lower Dir border district in northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, killing four people, police officials said.

#6: At least two people have been killed in an attack by unknown armed men on a NATO oil tanker in troubled northwestern Pakistan, Press TV reports. The militants opened fire on the tanker, carrying fuel supplies for US-led forces in neighboring Afghanistan, in the Jamroud bordering area of Pakistan's Khyber tribal region late Tuesday, killing at least two people, including the driver of the container. The fuel truck caught fire and was completely destroyed.

#7: Thirteen Taliban fighters have been reportedly killed in bombardment of the foreign forces in Khas Kunar district in Kunar province last night. The police chief of Khas Kunar district, Habibullah Jangi told the Afghan Islamic Press aircraft of the foreign forces conducted heavy bombardment on Taliban fighters in Maya area near the Durand Line last night, killing 13 Taliban fighters. “The death toll may be higher as the bombardment was very heavy. But there are 13 bodies in the area,” he maintained. The International Security Assistance Force media centre in eastern Afghanistan confirmed the operation. It, however, expressed unawareness about the number of the killed Taliban fighters. Meanwhile, the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told media only their 10 fighters had been killed in the area.

DoD: Airmen 1st Class Jerome D. Miller Jr

DoD: Pfc. Steven F. Shapiro

DoD: Lance Cpl. Jason N. Barfield

DoD: Capt. Shawn P. T. Charles

0 comments: