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, September 25, 2012

War News for Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier from natural causes in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan on Monday, September 24th.


Afghanistan: Oxford graduate officer shot himself day before 30th birthday

Afghan insurgent attacks on NATO forces drop: ISAF --  Insurgent attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan dropped by five percent in the first eight months of this year, but are still running at around 100 a day, the latest official figures show.

Drones in Pakistan traumatise civilians, US report says

Taliban Release Video on Afghan Base Attackers


Reported security incidents
#1: A security man was killed and another sustained injuries in a bomb blast in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency on Monday. Officials said that security personnel were returning to their barracks after escorting a convoy, supplying goods to Nato forces in Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device planted in the bushes along the road exploded. The explosion caused injuries to two security personnel, who were taken to a hospital where one of them identified as Amjad Malikdinkhel succumbed to his injuries.

#2: A US drone strike on Monday killed at least five terrorists in the tribal region near the Afghan border, security officials said. The strike targeted a compound in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan. The drone fired two missiles, they said. A security official in Miranshah told AFP that five terrorists had been killed. "The compound was located in Kaderkhail village, some 40 kilometres east of Miranshah, which is the headquarters of the North Waziristan tribal district," the official added.

#3: Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition troops have eliminated five militants in operations launched in eastern Afghan provinces within a 24-hour period, the coalition forces said in a statement on Tuesday. "Afghan and coalition forces killed five insurgents, detained one, located two weapons caches and cleared seven improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during operations in eastern Afghanistan throughout the past 24 hours," coalition's Regional Command-East (RC-E) said in the statement. The operations were launched in eastern Logar, Laghman, Ghazni, Khost, Paktia and Nangarhar provinces.

#4: The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) on Monday defused a bomb in Badhber area of Peshawar District, averting a terror bid near a police checkpost. According to details, miscreants planted a bomb in a handcart weighing 30 kilogrammes, however, was defused by BDS near the Sheikhan checkpost.

#5: An explosion rocked capital Kabul on Monday. The incident took place in Dasht-e-Barchi area at western part of capital Kabul. According to preliminary reports the incident took place after an explosive (hand grenade) was thrown at Naqash stop near a market in Dasht-e-Barchi area. At least six people have reportedly been injured following the incident.


MoD: Captain James Anthony Townley

1 comments:

Cervantes said...

The Guardian has a much sharper take on the report on drone strikes than the BBC:

"

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World news
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Drone attacks in Pakistan are counterproductive, says report

US academics' report says drones kill large numbers of civilians and increase recruitment by militant groups

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Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent
The Guardian, Monday 24 September 2012

Pakistani anti-drone protesters
Pakistani men protest against drone strikes. The report said a study showed 74% of Pakistanis considered the US an enemy. Photograph: SS Mirza/AFP/Getty Images

The CIA's programme of "targeted" drone killings in Pakistan's tribal heartlands is politically counterproductive, kills large numbers of civilians and undermines respect for international law, according to a report by US academics.

The study by Stanford and New York universities' law schools, based on interviews with victims, witnesses and experts, blames the US president, Barack Obama, for the escalation of "signature strikes" in which groups are selected merely through remote "pattern of life" analysis.

Families are afraid to attend weddings or funerals, it says, in case US ground operators guiding drones misinterpret them as gatherings of Taliban or al-Qaida militants.

"The dominant narrative about the use of drones in Pakistan is of a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer by enabling 'targeted killings' of terrorists, with minimal downsides or collateral impacts. This narrative is false," the report, entitled Living Under Drones, states."