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


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

War News for Wednesday, January 02, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: Twenty-two Taliban fighters, were killed in a newly-launched search operation by Afghan forces in southern Ghazni province, officials said on Tuesday. The offensive targeted insurgent groups operating in Deh Yak and Andar districts, an official with the Afghan army’s 203rd Thunder Military Corps, Lt. Col. Malang Pawzyar, told Pajhwok Afghan News. Five Taliban groups were eliminated during the 10-day old operation that also resulted in the seizure of weapon depots belonging to the rebels, he said.
 
#2: Meanwhile, six suspected insurgents have been killed in an airstrike in eastern Kunar province and in a drone attack in northern Kunduz, officials said on Tuesday. Four militants were killed in the airstrike that took place on Monday evening in the Yalgal valley of Ghaziabad district, governor’s spokesman Sher Wali told Pajhwok Afghan News. Another three suspects were injured in the incident, he added. But a Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that none of their comrades had been killed or wounded in Kunar region.

#3: Elsewhere, two people died when a NATO drone fired missiles into the Imam Sahib district in Kunduz, the town’s administrative head, Imaduddin Qureshi, said. The slain individuals included Qari Noorullah, a local Taliban commander, who was killed along with a comrade, police spokesman Syed Sarwar Hussaini said, though a resident, Juma Din, claimed the victims were civilians.

#4: Personnel of Afghan police have killed one Taliban fighter and captured 35 others on charge of having link with the armed outfit during series of operations over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a press release issued here on Wednesday. In the operations which have been carried out in Baghlan, Kunduz, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Ghazni, Khost, Farah and Helmand provinces. The press release did not say if there were any casualties on police personnel.

#5: According to local authorities in western Herat province of Afghanistan, the dead body of an Iranian citizen was found in Injil district on on Wednesday morning. Provincial security chief Gen. Abdul Hamid Hamid confirming the report said the deceased Iranian citizen was a truck driver and his body was found on Herat-Islama Qala highway.

#6: A contracted civilian employee of the International Security Assistance Force died as a result of a non-battle related injury in southern Afghanistan yesterday. 

Posted by whisker at 4:22 AM

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