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


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

War News for Wednesday, May 23, 2012

U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Will Leave Post

Reported security incidents
#1: At least four militants were killed Wednesday after a suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan, two Pakistani intelligence officials said. The attack occurred at a compound in the area of Datakhel of North Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan, the officials said.

#2: Gunmen have kidnapped two foreign women aid workers and their three Afghan colleagues in the remote province of Badakhshan in northeast Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday, May 23. "Yesterday evening, five health workers, including two female foreign nationals, were kidnapped in the Yaftal area," the provincial governor's spokesman, Abdul Mahroof Rasikh, said.


#3: A total of 15 Taliban militants have been killed and 33 others arrested as Afghan forces and NATO-led coalition troops launched eight military operations within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Wednesday morning. "Afghan police, army and NATO-led coalition forces launched eight cleanup operations over the past 24 hours, killing 15 armed Taliban insurgents and detaining 33 others suspected," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.The statement said that five other insurgents were injured during the raids conducted in southern Helmand and Zabul and eastern Nangarhar, Ghazni and Khost provinces.

DoD: Sgt. Michael J. Knapp
DoD: Sgt. Jabraun S. Knox

Posted by whisker at 4:03 AM

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