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, February 18, 2012

War News for Saturday, February 18, 2012

Reported security incidents
#1: update The death toll from a suicide motorbike bomb attack in a largely Shiite Muslim area of northwest Pakistan has risen to 31, according to officials. "The death toll rose to 31 after five more people died overnight," top regional administrator Sahibzada Mohammad Anees told AFP. "We still have 35 wounded people, who had been admitted to different hospitals in Parachinar and Peshawar for treatment," he said. A senior local administration official in Parachinar, Shahab Ali Shah, confirmed the new toll. The bomb exploded near a mosque as the main Friday prayers took place in Parachinar, a flashpoint for sectarian violence between majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's tribal badlands on the Afghan border.

#2: Militants ambushed a Pakistani paramilitary convoy in the Dera Bugti area of southwestern Baluchistan province, killing two soldiers and wounding nine others, security officials said.

#3: A homemade bomb exploded in the Tirah area of the northwestern Khyber tribal region, near the Afghanistan border, killing three Pakistani soldiers, intelligence officials said.

#4: Three insurgent were killed and eight other suspects detained during joint operations launched by the Afghan forces and NATO-led troops in four Afghan provinces, the country's Interior Ministry said on Saturday. "Afghan National Police, Afghan army and International Coalition Forces launched four joint operations in Kunar, Nangarhar, Kandahar and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours killing three armed insurgents and detaining eight others," the ministry said in a statement.

Posted by whisker at 2:52 AM

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