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


Tuesday, March 6, 2012

War News for Tuesday, March 06, 2012

185 Yemeni troops dead in weekend al-Qaida attack

Pak Taliban ‘number two sacked’

US wants unconditional Nato supply resumption


Reported security incidents
#1: Afghan officials say a suicide bomber, on Monday, killed at least two civilians after detonating explosives at the gates of the NATO base where copies of the holy Quran were burned. The bomber targeted a vehicle belonging to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said district Governor Kabir Ahmad Rahil. He added that there could be foreign casualties, although a NATO spokeswoman said no coalition troops had been harmed in the attack. Rahil says four more civilians were wounded in the attack.

#2: An explosion in Afghanistan Sunday wounded five Michigan Army National Guard Soldiers. An explosive thrown at the soldiers’ post in the Kunduz Province.

#3: One Pakistan Army soldier was killed and two wounded when a homemade bomb exploded while they were on patrol in the Mohmand tribal region, security officials said.

#4: Seven militants were killed and nine others injured in a gun battle after they ambushed a convoy of Frontier Corps troops in the Uch area of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, a Frontier Corps spokesman said. It was the second incident of this kind in Uch in two days. The spokesman said a large quantity of arms and ammunition was recovered.

#5: A group of militants ambushed a Pakistani paramilitary convoy in the Uch area of the southwestern Baluchistan province, security officials said. Three militants were killed when Pakistani forces returned fire.

#6: A soldier was killed by a homemade bomb in an empty house during a clearing operation by Pakistani forces in the Bara area of Khyber, security officials said.

#7: Three militants from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistan Taliban, were killed in fresh clashes with another militant group, Lashkar-e-Islam, in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency, tribal sources said.

#8: A homemade mine killed two insurgents and their two children in the southern Helmand province on Monday, the interior ministry said in a statement. One more child was wounded in the attack in the province's Grishk district.

#9: Afghan police backed by national army and the NATO-led coalition forces have killed four anti-government militants and captured eight others over the past 24 hours, a statement of Interior Ministry released here said. "During the past 24 hours, Afghan National Police, Afghan National Army, and Coalition Forces launched 10 joint operations in Nangarhar, Kunduz, Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Maidan Wardak, Logar, Herat and Farah provinces. As a result, four armed insurgents were killed, one wounded and eight others were arrested by Afghan Police," the statement added. However, it did not say if there were any casualties on security forces.

#10: At least four people were injured Tuesday morning in a blast in Jalalabad city, capital of eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, a provincial health official said.

#11: Six people were injured as a roadside bomb struck a vehicle in Khost province 150 km southeast of capital Kabul on Tuesday, a local official said. "A mine planted by militants struck a police van in Khost city, the capital of Khost province at around 09:00 a.m. local time today. As a result, six people were injured and all the victims have been taken to hospital," head of health department in Khost city Amir Padshah Mangal told Xinhua. Two police officers and four civilians,including a child, are among the injured, he added.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

That afghan/paki border wont be open. The Afghan/US war is a disaster to Pakistan - they were slow in learning this, but they finnaly got it.