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


Sunday, January 27, 2013

News of the Day for Sunday, January 27, 2013

Eight police and 2 others killed by an explosion in Kandahar city. The police had gone to defuse a bomb, and were driving back to their station with three suspects in custody when they hit a second device, which killed 2 of the detainees as well as the 8 officers.

Karzai condemns suicide bombing in Kunduz Saturday evening that is now reported to have killed ten people including provincial counter-terrorism chief and head of the traffic department, and injured 18. (Elsewhere in this report it states the attack took place in Ghazni. This appears to result from confusion with the attack Whisker posted yesterday which at that time was reported to have killed two people, in Ghazni. Bill Roggio indeed identifies two separate incidents.) AFP counts a total of 23 Afghan police killed in 24 hours.

Local officials say NATO troops killed 3 Afghan civilians in Logar province, ISAF denies the report, saying Afghan police killed 3 people suspected of placing IEDs who failed to stop at a checkpoint. (These stories are so entirely disparate that somebody is making something up. -- C)

Seven taliban reported arrested in Nangarhar, a taliban leader and 3 others reported arrested in Helmand.

Officials of Afghanistan's largest private airline Kam Air have rejected the claim that the airline has been smuggling opium to neighbouring Tajikistan. The U.S. military has blacklisted the company, claiming large quantities of the narcotic have been found on its flights.


Afghan government asks for $471 million in disaster relief following various catastrophes in recent years. (And Matthieu Aikins, for Harpers, let's us know what's going to happen when ISAF leaves and the gravy train stops flowing. Apart from opium, Afghanistan is essentially a camp follower economy. The country's enterprises and middle class will collapse.)


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Almighty Allah bless afghan people and their country these poor people have suffered a lot and havebecome victims of europian 3rd rate policy.May God bless afghan.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't this strike you as odd that the Allies casualty rates have fallen so low compared with the years before since prior to the elections in the u.s? One might wonder what directions the T'ban and Al Q. have received from their creators/real masters ( and you know who they are) now that they are not needed to distract the world's attention from their master's real intentions.

Cervantes said...

Nope, can't say that I know who they are -- or at least who you think they are. NATO is reducing its offensive activity in Afghanistan, I don't think the various insurgents are giving them a free pass, if that's what you're implying.