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


Monday, November 19, 2012

War News for Monday, November 19, 2012

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, November 18th.


Reported security incidents
#1: Four civilians were wounded during a clash between the Afghan army and insurgents in the Khogyani district of eastern Nangarhar province, an official said on Monday. Haji Syed Rehman, the district chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the militants attacked a convoy of the Afghan National Army (ANA) in Mamla area late Sunday night. The soldiers escaped unhurt, but four civilian were wounded.

#2: Roadside bombs killed a total of five people and wounded 10 on Sunday in two separate blasts in the tribal areas near the Afghan border, officials said. One of the improvised explosive devices was planted along the route of an army convoy in the Mir Ali area 35 kilometres east of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan district, they said. "The explosion killed at least two soldiers and injured seven others," a security official in Miranshah said on condition of anonymity. Another local security official confirmed the attack and said two of some 10 to 15 vehicles in the convoy were severely damaged.

#3: In the Shin Qamar area of the Khyber tribal region, at least three labourers were killed and three wounded on Sunday in an explosion caused by a roadside bomb, said senior local official Nasir Khan. He said the bomb went off as the labourers, who were carrying construction materials on mules, passed by. Local intelligence officials also confirmed the incident.

#4: Units of Afghan police have eliminated nine Taliban militants during series of operations over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Monday. In the operations, according to the statement which have been carried out in Kabul, Kunar, Kandahar, Helmand, Daikundi, Faryab, Uruzgan and Farah provinces over the past 24 hours, nine Taliban fighters were killed and 20 others made captive. The statement did not say if there were any casualties on the police side.

Meanwhile Afghan security forces, backed by International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops, killed 16 insurgents in a string of operations across the country, the Ministry of Interior said on Sunday. The operations were conducted in Kabul, Laghman, Faryab, Kandahar, Zabul, Maidan Wardak, Ghazni, Paktika and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours. Eight insurgents were wounded and four others detained.

#5: Five soldiers were killed in a bomb attack on an ANA patrol in the Ghormach district of Faryab, the ministry said, adding that another five troops were wounded.

#6: In the eastern province of Kunar, the militants killed three soldiers, who had been kidnapped three days ago, a military spokesman, Col. Noman Hatifi, told Pajhwok Afghan News. The soldiers' bodies were found Sunday morning, according to Hatifi, who said the victims hailed from northern Afghanistan.

#7: A suspected insurgent was killed by the explosives he was planting on a roadside in the Cholan village on the outskirts of Khost City, the capital of Khost southeastern province.

#8: A suicide bomb targeting a car enroute to Qazi Hussain's rally in Mohmand Agency injured three people and damaged the vehicle, local political administration said. According to the administration, the incident took place when a woman suicide bomber blew herself up near the vehicle, resultantly three activists of Jamat e Islami (JI) got injuries. The administration said that Qazi Hussain Ahmed was present at the place of public gathering when the incident took place.

#9: A district police chief was injured along with his son and two guards when his vehicle struck a roadside improvised explosive device in Baghlan province on Sunday. The police chief of Khanabad district, Kunduz province, Sofi Habibur Rahman, his son and two guards were injured when a roadside IED struck his vehicle in Markazi Baghlan district of Baghlan province, the Baghlan provincial police chief Kameen told the Afghan Islamic.

#10: A powerful blast rocked the border town of Islam Qala in the western Herat province 640 km west of Kabul on Monday, injuring three people, a local official said. "The blast happened at around 09:50 a.m. local time near a border police checkpoint in the border town of Islam Qala, leaving three people injured," the official told Xinhua but declined to be identified.

#11: According to local authorities in eastern Ghazni province of Afgahnistan, Taliban militants assassinated an Afghan man over espionage charges in Deh-Yak district. District police chief Faiz Toofan confirming the report said the deceased Afghan man was recogized as Faiz Toofan and was a resident of Deh-Yak district. He said Mohammad Ibrahim was killed by Taliban militants in Laghwat village. In the meantime local residents and eye witnesses in the area said the man was killed following firefight between Taliban militants and Afghan police forces however local officials deny reports by local residents and said he was killed by Taliban militants.


DoD: Sgt. Channing B. Hicks

DoD: Spc. Joseph A. Richardson

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