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, August 7, 2012

War News for Tuesday, August 07, 2012

The French MoD is reporting the death of a French ISAF soldier from a small arms fire and indirect fire attack near the Tagab bridge, Kapisa province, Afghanistan on Tuesday, August 7th. One additional French soldier and one ANA soldier were wounded in the attack. Here's the ISAF release.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Monday, August 6th.
 
NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, August 7th.


Reported security incidents
#1: A roadside bomb killed nine Afghan civilians and wounded five more in the Paghman district, west of Kabul, according to a statement from Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office.

#2: In a third attack, a suicide bomber in a truck detonated near an ISAF military base, wounding at least 13 people in Logar province, just south of Kabul, provincial spokesman Mohammad Faqeer Darwish said. He said that two of the injured were Americans. ISAF spokesman Lt. Col. Hagen Messer confirmed that ISAF service members were injured in the explosion in the province's capital of Pul-e-Alam, but did not identify their nationalities nor say how many had been hurt.

A suicide attacker drove the explosives-laden pickup truck into a gate at the NATO base near Logar's capital of Pul-i-Alam, provincial police chief Ghulam Sakhi Roogh Lawanay said. The truck belonged to a local contractor who was authorized to work on the base, and the explosives were hidden under a load of gravel, Lawanay said. He added that the truck was able to enter an outer gate of the base before the driver slammed the vehicle into a second gate.

#3: The anti-government militants in Afghanistan use a new tactic that took many into surprise - using innocent donkey as bomb that claimed the life of a senior police officer and injured three others in the western Ghor province 360 km west of Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, police confirmed. "The rebels planted mine on a donkey and stopped it near the gate of the district headquarters of Charsada district and when the district police chief arrived at the gate to go to his office, the rebels exploded it by remote control, killing the police chief on the spot," police chief of Ghor province, Dilawar Shah Dilawar told Xinhua.

#4: Anti-government militants in a related incident gunned down the deputy to police chief of Shindand district in Herat province 640 km west of capital Kabul on Monday morning, police said. "Two unknown armed men riding a motorbike opened fire and killed the deputy police chief of Shindand district in the morning rush hour today," inspector general police of Herat province, Sayed Aqa Saqib said.

#5: A truck driver has been killed in an attack on a Nato supply tanker in north-west Pakistan, officials say. The tanker, part of a convoy of 18, was attacked by two gunmen on a motorbike as it travelled through Khyber Agency on its way to Afghanistan.

#6: six militants were killed and 11 others including three civilians wounded during a clash that erupted after a Taliban attack on a checkpoint in the Kohistanat district of Sar-i-Pul province, local police commander Farooq said.

#7: One policeman was injured and his father killed on Sunday night when Taliban attacked their house in the Mangoti area of Sar-i-Pul City, the acting police chief said.

#8: Four fighters were killed and a fifth detained during a raid by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on a heroin factory in the Abdulkhel area of Achin district in Nangarhar province, said the administrative head of the town, Moalim Mashooq.

#9: In the same province, militants attacked the Hesarak district headquarters from four directions at 10am on Monday, sparking a fierce clash with security personnel, said the district chief, Abdul Khaliq Maroof.

#10: In the central province of Uruzgan, one police officer was killed and four others during a clash were in the Sar Shakhlo area on the outskirts of Tirinkot, the provincial capital. Police spokesman Farid Ayel said police commander, Shah Mohammad, was killed by his nephews, who were also policemen.

#11: In the Deh Rawood district of the province, a tribal elder, Haji Naeem, was shot dead by the guerrillas late on Sunday when he was on his way home.

#12: Separately, the Ministry of Interior said three Taliban commanders were among eight fighters killed and three others detained during police operations in Logar, Paktia, Khost and Nangarhar provinces.

#13: According to local authorities in western Nimroz province of Afghanistan, a number of Afghan civilians were killed following night time military operation by coalition security forces in this province. Khashrod district chief Haji Mohammad Hashim said, at least four Afghan civilians were killed and two Afghan kids were injured during a military operation by coalition forces last night.


DoD: 1st Sgt. Russell R. Bell

DoD: Staff Sgt. Matthew S. Sitton

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