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, December 10, 2012

War News for Monday, December 10, 2012

NATO is reporting the death of an USFOR-A soldier from unreported reasons in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, December 9th. News and the DoD reports that a navy seal was killed during the rescue operation of an American doctor.


Reported security incidents
#1: Also Monday morning, gunmen shot and killed the head of the women's affairs department for the eastern Laghman province, said Sarhadi Zewak, a spokesman for the provincial government. Nadia Sediqi was on her way to the office from her home on the outskirts of the provincial capital when she was attacked, Zewak said. She had taken the job after her predecessor, Anifa Safi, died in a bomb attack in July.

#2: A roadside bomb killed the police chief of Afghanistan's western Nimroz province on Monday, a police official said. General Mohammad Musa Rasoli's vehicle was struck by the bomb as he was heading to work, the official said.

#3: At least six people are reported to have been killed in a militant attack on a police station in northwestern Pakistan. Officials are quoted as saying the dead from the attack on the Kaki station, near Bannu, include three police officers, as well as civilians. RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal reports that the attack included two suicide bombers and militants throwing hand grenades.

Militants on Monday morning attacked a police station located on the outskirt of Bannu city where at least nine persons including three policemen and an Army soldier were killed, FP News desk reported. Militants besieged the police station with hand grenades and then opened fire that killed five persons who had come out of the mosque after offering prayers. The violent exchange of fire continued for at least one and a half hour in which seven security men were injured including an SHO. An Army soldier, Rahimullah also embraced martyrdom during the combat with militants. Police told that four suicide attackers blew themselves when they were surrounded by the additional contingents of security forces that were called in from the Bannu city. One suicide attacker aged 12 managed to flee from the scene.

#4: A Swedish charity worker who was critically wounded in a gun attack in Lahore last week was flown home on Monday for specialist medical treatment, officials said. Bargeeta Almby, 72, was coming home from work when she was shot in the chest. She was working in Lahore for the US-founded Full Gospel Assemblies, which describes itself as a "church fellowship" with congregations all over the world. "She was still unconscious, her condition is critical, she is on a ventilator," said Fazlur Rehman, chief doctor at Jinnah Hospital

#5: At least four persons were injured in a blast that targeted the venue of Awami National Party (ANP) rally on Monday, FP News desk reported. According to police, a hand grenade was hurled near the ANP rally venue in the parking area where the party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan was scheduled to address, but fortunately he had not arrived at the venue at the time of blast. Resultantly, four persons were injured who were shifted to the hospital for treatment.

#6: Separately, five armed militants were killed and five were wounded in a clash in Nangarhar province, 120 km east of Kabul, on Sunday afternoon. "The clash took place when a group of special-counter narcotics police forces launched a poppy opium eradication campaign in Khogyani district Sunday afternoon," spokesman for the governor, Ahmad Zia Abdul Zai, told Xinhua on Monday. He said additional forces arrived in the area shortly after the fighting.

1 comments:

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