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, December 23, 2011

War News for Friday, December 23, 2011

Royal Marine killed in Afghanistan on 22 December 2011

Longview soldier killed in Afghanistan -- and not a peep out of NATO or the DoD about this - whisker

Unmanned helicopter makes first delivery for Marines in Afghanistan

Pak suffered most from IEDs losing 2073 security personnel

Two rockets hit Liberty Base in Kirkuk -- General Sarhad Qadir told Aswat al-Iraq that the two rockets were shot from south west Kirkuk to hit the present Iraqi military base, following US forces withdrawal.

U.S. Report Faults Two Sides in Deadly Pakistan Strike

U.S. deal with Taliban breaks down


Reported security incidents

#1: Militants attacked a paramilitary base in the early hours of Friday in the Mulazai area of the northwestern Tank district, killing a soldier and wounding two, security officials said.

#2: (12/22) One armed insurgent was killed and 28 others arrested in a joint operation of the Afghan National Police, Afghan National Army, National Directorate of Security and coalition forces in areas surrounding Laghman, Loghar and Kabul provinces during the past 24 hours, the interior ministry said in a statement.

#3: Unknown armed men in southern Helmand province on Thursday assassinated a member of the Helmand provincial municipal council. According to local officials, the incident took place in Lashkargah city of southern Helmand province. The gunmen managed the flee the area after assassinating the provincial municipal council.

Posted by whisker at 3:20 AM

3 comments:

Dancewater said...

How Maliki and Iran outsmarted the US at every turn

December 23, 2011 at 11:07 PM
Dancewater said...

More US soldiers die from suicide than combat

December 24, 2011 at 12:04 AM
Dancewater said...

Short post by Craig Murray:

Iraq Disaster

Not even in Ghana can you escape the US propaganda surrounding the final pull-out of troops (but not oil companies) from Iraq. They leave Iraq “sovereign and free”, a variety of thuggish looking and dull Americans have just told us.

But being in Ghana I probably see rather more balance on TV than I would in the UK. For example, while there is still no official body count from the war, there is an official count of those wounded. The Iraqi Ministry of Health states, officially, that over 3 million were maimed.

Even though the Iraqi healthcare system was damaged by a decade of sanctions before the invastion, on the eve of the attack there were still over twice as many functioning healthcare clinics and hospitals as there are today, and nearly five times as many doctors working in them.

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2011/12/iraq-disaster/

December 24, 2011 at 12:45 AM

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