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


Thursday, October 25, 2012

War News for Thursday, October 25, 2012

The British MoD is reporting the deaths of two British ISAF service members while on a combat mission in the Nahr-e Saraj district, Helmand Province, Afghanistan on Wednesday, October 24th. Here's the ISAF release.


Reported security incidents
#1: Two Polish soldiers were injured on Wednesday after their helicopter came under attack in the province of Ghazni, eastern Afghanistan. Tworkowski told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that the attack occurred during a routine patrol, “in a very dangerous area that is highly populated with rebels.” The insurgents opened fire on the helicopter with machine guns. “Unfortunately, similar attacks on coalition forces are happening more and more often,” he said, noting about a dozen such incidents had occurred over the last week.

#2: The death toll of a raging battle that exploded in Myan Darra, a village in Afghanistan's remote north-western province of Faryab, is of at least 32 victims. A 30-men strong Taliban commando attacked and took over a local bazaar, executing two civilians for allegedly "collaborating" with the Central Government. The market was subsequently surrounded by the police special squads which shot down 25 militias but only after they had managed to kill five police agents.

#3: One policeman and two foreign soldiers were killed during infighting in Greshk district of southern Helmand province, an official said on Thursday. Police spokesman, Farid Ahmad Farhang said two policemen were performing ablution when they were attacked by foreign troops on Wednesday afternoon. He told Pajhwok Afghan News that the foreign soldiers suspected the policemen were armed insurgents. As result, an armed clash erupted between the group that led to the dead of two foreign soldiers and a policeman, he added.

#4: Nine armed insurgents were killed during two separate operations in the Chak district of central Maidan Wardak province, an official said on Thursday. The joint operations were conducted by Afghan and foreign forces in Araban area of the district, the governor's spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told Pajhwok Afghan News.

#5: At least three policemen were wounded in firing on a police van in Shalkot area of Quetta on Thursday. According to details, the police van was on routine patrol near West Bypass when some unidentified gunmen riding on motorcycles opened fire and injured ASI Ghulam Rasool, Constable Abdullah and Constable Aziz.


DoD: Chief Warrant Officer Michael S. Duskin

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Iraq looks to reinstate disbanded army officers


Fri, 26 October 2012



BAGHDAD — Efforts by Iraq’s premier to court disbanded army officers from some areas of the country can help boost security and support for the leader ahead of upcoming elections, analysts and observers say.
Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki has called for officers from north and west who served under Saddam Hussein to be reinstated as long as they have no Iraqi blood on their hands.
His call is seen as a pragmatic bid to damp violence in areas which remain among Iraq’s least stable, but also a strategy to boost the popularity of Maliki, who is from the country’s majority, ahead of provincial and national polls in 2013 and 2014.
“Maliki’s initiative comes from a need to draw on the experience of these officers in boosting security, especially in some areas,” said Hamid Fadhel, a politics professor at Baghdad University.
But “there is a political goal, along with the security goal, with this initiative,” he added. “Maliki wants to present a nationalist platform, to break the limits of just one sect in the next elections.”
Ahead of the last polls in March 2010, Maliki flirted with running on a cross-sectarian slate before leading the alliance to a narrow second-place finish.
He later managed to form a government by banding with other parties, outmanoeuvring the Iraqiya bloc which had finished first in the polls.
While his National Alliance coalition remains the largest in parliament, it won little support in the provinces of Anbar, Nineveh, Salaheddin, Diyala, and the disputed province of Kirkuk.
And though violence is dramatically lower than its peak in 2006 and 2008, when tens of thousands were killed in brutal communal bloodshed, unrest remains higher in Iraq’s north and west than in the south. — AFP

http://main.omanobserver.om/node/118714

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afGPy_JVii0

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcvAUMyGAPw

Heh... I have 4 beers left so I will have them wit Maliki.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gXXWjK0tD0

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji2rLXr3cEU

Anonymous said...

http://instagram.com/p/RNEhPjKJVn/

Anonymous said...

Srry for spamming troll evil. Last1...

Tuku Mai Noku Te Tiare

watch?v=RniqXECe6H4

Anonymous said...

cause yeah... everybody deserves a chance in this life and shouldn't be discriminated against for the position that they were born into.

Anonymous said...

THIS IS CRAZY ALL THIS KILLING GOING ON OVER THERE WHY WE (WIFE,MOTHER,HUSBAND,DAUGHTER,SISTER,FRIEND,GIRLFRIEND AND KIDS) SIT OVER HERE AMERICA AND WAIT FOR THAT PHONE CALL.....WHY IS THE WAR STILL GOING ON????