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, February 20, 2012

War News for Monday, February 20, 2012

The Italian MoD is reporting the deaths of three Italian ISAF soldiers in a Vehicle accident during a rescue operation about 20 KM. south-west of Shindand, Herat province, Afghanistan on Monday, February 20th. An additional soldier was injured in the incident. Here's the ISAF release.

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by the military. Petty Officer First Class Paris S. Pough died from undisclosed causes in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Friday, February 17th. He was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.


The end of American intervention

Taliban Gaining More Resources From Kidnapping

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Feb 19. Feb 20.


Reported security incidents
#1: An Afghan official says a roadside bomb has killed four civilians in southern Kandahar province. The police chief of Kandahar’s Shah Wali Kot district, Mohammad Bacha Khan, said the four were killed on Sunday when their car drove over the bomb. The explosion occurred on a highway in the district.

#2: Also Monday, a suicide car bomber attacked a police station in southern Afghanistan's largest city, Kandahar, killing one police officer. The attacker drove a Toyota Corolla up to the checkpoint outside of the Kandahar police station and detonated his explosives, said the city's police chief, Abdul Raziq. Four people were wounded in the explosion — two police officers and two civilians, he added. Gunfire could be heard immediately following the blast, but Raziq said the shots came from the police.

#3: Mohammad Salim, a police commander in Shindand, said two men on a motorcycle drove up and fired shots at police officers who were shopping in the market. One officer and a boy who was standing nearby were killed.

#4: And a Turkish engineer who was working on construction projects in Shindand was kidnapped over the weekend, Salim said. He said kidnappers forced the man into a car as he was leaving the airport on Saturday. He did not provide further details.

#5: A bomb planted at a checkpoint manned by members of a Pakistani militia fighting a radical group similar to the Taliban exploded Sunday and killed eight militia members in northwest Pakistan, a government official said. The complex attack started when a bomb planted at the checkpoint was detonated by a timer, Khan said. Then as the militiamen were retrieving the bodies, the militants opened fired on them. The militiamen escaped unhurt, but two of the militants were killed in the retaliatory fire.

#6: Militants attacked a Pakistani military checkpost, killing a soldier and wounding three others, in the town of Wana in the South Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghanistan border, intelligence and security officials said.


DoD: Sgt. Jerry D. Reed II

DoD: Petty Officer First Class Paris S. Pough

1 comments:

Dancewater said...

Children die in Afghanistan's big freeze

This article covers the same material that was in one of the links yesterday.

But, seriously, if the US government is driving people into refugee camps, are we not responsible for all these deaths? Are they not murder?