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, January 6, 2012

War News for Friday, January 06, 2011

NATO is reporting the deaths of three ISAF soldiers from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, January 5th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, January 6th.

NATO is reporting the deaths of four ISAF soldiers from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, January 6th.


Karzai Demands US Hand Over Afghan Prisoners

Rockets hit Green Zone as Iraq marks Army Day

Baghdad Bombings Kill 78

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, January 6, jan 5th

Aswat Al Iraq/ 'Latest News'


Reported security incidents
#1: The security forces killed five suspected militants in Orakzai tribal region on Friday, official sources said. Sources said that security forces pounded militant safe-houses in Mamozai and Khadizai areas of upper Orakzai region, destroying at least two hideouts.

#2: Seven people including six children lost their lives as a bomb went off in Uruzgan province 370km south of Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, police said. "The gruesome incident happened in the bazaar of provincial capital Trinkot at around 03:00 p.m. local time as a result seven people including six children were martyred on the spot," police spokesman in Trinkot city Mohammad Farid Aael told Xinhua. Four more children sustained injuries in the deadly incident, he added. The explosive device was planted inside a garbage bucket along a road in Trinkot bazaar, he said, adding the insurgents apparantly wanted to target security forces but it exploded claiming seven lives including six children.

#3: An Italian soldier in Afghanistan was injured Friday when a bomb exploded nearby, Italian military sources said. The soldier, whose injuries are not life-threatening, was on foot patrol when he was struck by the blast in the western part of the country, according to commanders from the Italian contingent of the NATO mission. The bomb was the second in three days to injure an Italian soldier in western Afghanistan. A private was hurt Wednesday when an IED (roadside bomb) went off as his convoy drove past in the district of Gulistan, where Italian troops are stationed.

1 comments:

Dancewater said...

Fallujah Babies

"We have all kinds of defects now, ranging from congenital heart disease to severe physical abnormalities, both in numbers you cannot imagine," Alani told Al Jazeera at her office in the hospital, while showing countless photos of shocking birth defects.

As of December 21, Alani, who has worked at the hospital since 1997, told Al Jazeera she had personally logged 677 cases of birth defects since October 2009. Just eight days later when Al Jazeera visited the city on December 29, that number had already risen to 699.

"There are not even medical terms to describe some of these conditions because we've never seen them until now," she said. "So when I describe it all I can do is describe the physical defects, but I'm unable to provide a medical term."

Most of these babies in Fallujah die within 20 to 30 minutes after being born, but not all.

++++++++++++++

I can think of nothing more EVIL than taking away a community's right to have healthy children. Things are so bad in Fallujah, that OB doctors are telling people to NOT HAVE CHILDREN AT ALL.