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


Saturday, January 21, 2012

War News for Saturday, January 21, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, January 21th.


Bulgarian Man among 4 French Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan

Congresswoman: All 6 killed in helicopter crash in Afghanistan were Hawaii-based Marines

Iraq: Body of Briton Is Returned - The body of a British hostage kidnapped in 2007 has been turned over to the British Embassy in Baghdad, officials said Friday. The hostage, Alan McMenemy, was one of five men kidnapped by Shiite militants outside the Finance Ministry. He was part of a security detail guarding a computer expert, Peter Moore, who was released alive in 2010

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, January 21, Jan 20th.


Reported security incidents
#1: Five Afghan policemen were killed Friday following a clash in the country's western province of Herat, a provincial police source said on Saturday. "An unspecified number of armed insurgents laid an ambush against a unit of Afghan border police force in bordering district of Gulran late Friday triggering a clash that left five border policemen dead," a police official with the fast-reaction unit of border police in the province, Mohammad Saliman told Xinhua via phone. He said a police vehicle was also damaged in the incident in the province 640 km west of capital Kabul.

#2: In another development, four armed insurgents were killed by the Afghan security forces in Barmal district of eastern Paktika province earlier Saturday. "Four armed insurgents including two suicide bombers were shot dead by Afghan security forces at around 10:00 a.m. local time near the Barmal district bazaar," the provincial government said in a statement, adding that the killed insurgents had the intention of attacking a district headquarters and a nearby Afghan and foreign troop's joint coordination center in the bordering district. It said no Afghan police, army or civilian were injured in the incident in the district bordering Pakistan.

#3: A roadside mine killed four civilians and wounded two in Lashkar Gah city, Helmand province, on Saturday, said Kamaluddin Shirzai a senior police detective in the southern province.

#4: Afghan security forces and foreign troops killed four insurgents, wounded two and detained 17 during operations across the country in the past 24 hours, the interior ministry said in a statement

#5: A roadside bomb exploded next to a pro-government tribal militia patrol in the Jamrud area of the northwestern Khyber tribal region, killing two militiamen and wounding three, local government officials said.

Fr/MoD: l’adjudant-chef Fabien Willm

Fr/MoD: l’adjudant-chef Denis Estin

Fr/MoD: le sergent-chef Svilen Simeonov

Fr/MoD: le brigadier-chef Geoffrey Baumela

Posted by whisker at 4:29 AM

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