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, March 31, 2012

War News for Saturday, March 31, 2012

NATO supplies resumption & implications

Afghanistan presses for answers on long-term U.S. military bases

Robert Fisk: Watch us lead the UN donkey up the Khyber

U.S. drones attack militants in Pakistan, Yemen

In Afghanistan, Businesses Plan Their Own Exits


Reported security incidents
#1: Five militants were killed by police in a clash after the Taliban launched an attack on a check point in the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan, the country's Interior Ministry said on Saturday. "Five Taliban militants, including a senior commander of the insurgents namely Mullah Abdul Rahim, were killed after the Afghan National Police (ANP) repelled their attack on a police check point in Kamdish district of Nuristan province Friday night," the ministry said in a statement. Four militants were also injured in the clash while there were no casualties on the ANP, the statement added.

#2: Afghan Interior Ministry following a press release on Saturday announced, at least 9 insurgents were killed and detained and following military operations by Afghan national police during the past 24 hours. At least 25 insurgents were also detained by Afghan police forces during the military operations. The source further added, the operations were conducted jointly with the Afghan national army, Afghan intelligence and international coalition security forces at Kabul, Kunduz, Kandahar, Helmand, Nimroz, Logar, Ghazni, Khost and Paktia provinces of Afghanistan.

#3: A number of armed insurgents ambushed Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces in eastern Kapisa province on Thursday. According to a statement released by International Security Assistance Force on Friday, Afghan and coalition security forces were attacked while in the vicinity of a combat outpost in Tagab district, Kapisa province, yesterday. The source further added, insurgents fired multiple mortar rounds targeting the forces. The rounds landed in a nearby compound killing one woman and wounding three children.


DoD: Pfc. Johnathon F. Davis

Posted by whisker at 3:12 AM

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