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, February 10, 2012

War News for Friday, February 10, 2012

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by the military. Sgt. 1st Class Billy A. Sutton died from unreported causes somewhere in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan on Tuesday, February 7th.


Afghan private security handover looking messy

Drones multiply militants: FM Hina

Ten years later, CIA ‘rendition’ program still divides N.C. town


Reported security incidents
#1: Pakistani forces killed 11 militants and wounded 19 in the northwest on Friday, security officials said, in a crackdown in the Kurram tribal region near the border with Afghanistan. The military fired artillery shells at three suspected hideouts in the Mamozai area of Kurram, where dozens of people have been killed in fierce fighting between Pakistani soldiers and insurgents in the last few weeks. The death toll could not be independently verified and militants often dispute official accounts.

#2: It said that six militants were killed on Thursday after foreign forces launched an airstrike in response to rocket-propelled grenade attack and small arms fire in the Nijrab district of Kapisa, situated some 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of the Afghan capital city of Kabul.

#3: Two other were killed after foreign forces retaliated for a barrage of mortar rounds fired by militants in the Khost district of Khost Province, situated 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of Kabul, the ISAF statement added.

#4: Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai accused NATO on Thursday of killing a number of children in an airstrike, a case which could stoke tensions between the government and its western backers over a mounting civilian death doll. The NATO-led coalition in the country did not immediately confirm the deaths, but said it was investigating an incident in the Najrab district of eastern Kapisa province. Mehrabuddin Safi, the governor of Kapisa, said a coalition air strike late on Wednesday killed eight children in Giawa village. Other Afghan officials had earlier said the strike followed a night raid on suspected insurgents.

#5: Kandahar (BNA) two civilians were wounded in a bomb explosion in Kandahar province yesterday, this bomb exploded yesterday noon in the Khwaja BaBa area, of that province. According to reports, Taliban was placed this bomb in a motorbikes. Media’s office of Kandahar province said to BNA, in this explosion, two civilians have been wounded.

#6: A homemade bomb planted in a donkey cart exploded in the Khuzdar area of the southwestern Baluchistan province, killing one person and wounding another, police officials said.


DoD: Sgt. 1st Class Billy A. Sutton

Posted by whisker at 3:11 AM

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