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, December 26, 2011

War News for Mondayy, December 26, 2011

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, U.K. on Friday, December 23rd. The soldier was wounded in a roadside bombing somewhere south of Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, December 21st.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, December 25th.


Afghanistan sets ground rules for Taliban talks

US-backed Afghan peace process fails

Suicide Attack Kills 7 in Baghdad - A suicide bomber set off a car bomb at a checkpoint leading to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, killing seven people and injuring 32 others, officials said.

U.S. Prepares for a Curtailed Relationship With Pakistan


Reported security incidents
#1: A GUNMAN wearing an Afghan army uniform has opened fire on coalition troops in western Afghanistan. An official said several NATO troops were wounded in the shooting and the gunman was killed. NATO and Afghan authorities were investigating the attack, which took place on Saturday at an outpost in Bala Boluk district, about 700km west of Kabul, Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said. A NATO statement said there were no fatalities among alliance soldiers, but an official, who asked not to be named, said several coalition troops were wounded.

#2: A suicide bomber struck a funeral procession in northern Afghanistan Sunday, killing 19 people and wounding scores more. Among the dead was a member of the national parliament, Abdul Mutaleb Baik, who was said to be a former commander in the Northern Alliance.

#3: According to local officials in southern Afghanistan, a Taliban commander was killed and 3 others were detained following armed clashes in southern Helmand province. Helmand provincial governor media department following a press release on Monday said, the Taliban commander was killed and his 3 other companions were detained after the Taliban militants ambushed the Afghan national police forces in Greshk district of southern Helmand province on Saturday. The source further added, Afghan national police forces were backed by the Afghan national army soldiers during the clashes and there were no reports of the Afghan security forces casualties.

#4: In a separate operation by NATO-led coalition forces, at least two militants were killed and two others were injured in Sangin district of southern Helmand province.


DoD: Spc. Mikayla A. Bragg

7 comments:

Dancewater said...

Iraq arrests four security officals following Baghdad bombings

Dancewater said...

Dysfunctional banking sector helps keep Iraq in economic shambles

Dancewater said...

Iraq to move Iranian dissidents from Camp Ashraf

They are terrorists, but the Obama administration likes them.

Dancewater said...

Press TV is reporting that an Afghan soldier killed 3 US troops. Don't know if that is accurate.

Dancewater said...

Seven dead in the attack on Interior Ministry in Iraq - former reports said four died.

Dancewater said...

Iraqi Shiite militia 'ready to lay down arms'

An Iraqi Shiite militia group behind the kidnap of a British consultant and his four bodyguards, and blamed for the killing of US troops, said on Monday it would join the political process.

Qais al-Khazali, leader of Asaib Ahel al-Haq or League of the Righteous, said the departure of American forces a week ago meant violent "resistance" was no longer required.

"The sons of resistance have carried out their duty successfully," Khazali told a conference in the holy Shiite city of Najaf in south Iraq. "They are ready to sacrifice to participate in the political process."

Mohammed al-Hamed, spokesman for Iraq's National Reconciliation Commission, said authorities held a series of talks with the League of the Righteous's political section and the deal was agreed after the US completed its withdrawal from Iraq on December 18.

"They felt the withdrawal is real, and there is no need to carry weapons," Hamed told AFP. "It has been agreed by the two sides to support the political process and take part in it."

Dancewater said...

Afghanistan sets ground rules for Taliban

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan will accept a Taliban liaison office in Qatar to start peace talks but no foreign power can get involved in the process without its consent, the government's peace council said, as efforts gather pace to find a solution to the decade-long war.

Afghanistan's High Peace Council, in a note to foreign missions, has set out ground rules for engaging the Taliban after Kabul grew concerned that the United States and Qatar, helped by Germany, had secretly agreed with the Taliban to open an office in the Qatari capital, Doha.

U.S. officials have held about half a dozen meetings with their insurgent contacts, mostly in Germany and Doha with representatives of Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban's Quetta Shura, this year to prepare the way for face-to-face talks between the group and the Afghan government.

A representative office for the group is considered the starting point for such talks and Doha has in the past served as a meeting ground for initial contacts.

But the Afghan peace commission which has suffered a series of setbacks including the assassination of its head in September said that negotiations with the Taliban could only begin after they stopped violence against civilians, cut ties to al Qaeda, and accepted the Afghan constitution which guarantees civil rights and liberties, including rights for women.