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 23, 2013

War News for Wednesday, January 23, 2013

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in in undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, January 23rd.


Reported security incidents
#1: A suicide bomber has rammed a motorcycle packed with explosives into a convoy of Afghanistan’s national guards in the western Herat province, a local internet news agency has reported. The attack occurred 8 km south of the Herat city, which is the administrative center of the province. The terrorist attacked an armed police vehicle, killing one officer and wounding nine. Two policemen are said to be in critical condition.

#2: Militants on Wednesday dumped the mutilated body of a purported Afghan spy accused of collaborating on US drone strikes that killed prominent warlord Mullah Nazir in South Waziristan this month, officials said. The body of the man identified as Asmatullah Kharoti was found in Wana,
South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.
 
#3: An Afghan Local Police official was killed as the Taliban attacked security checkposts in Badghis and Herat provinces, officials said Tuesday. The Taliban attacked an outpost of the Afghan Local Police in Ali Charkh area, Qadis district, Badghis province last night, killing a cop, the district governor Mirza Ali told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP). He said he did not have information about casualties to the Taliban. Meanwhile, the Taliban spokesman Qari Muhammad Yousaf Ahmadi told the AIP that five Afghan Local Police personnel, including their commander Abdul Rasheed, were killed in the attack in Qadis district. A Taliban fighter was killed in the gunfight, he said, adding their fighters captured one Kalashnikov in the attack.

#4: In Pashtun Zarghun district of Herat province, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in Baladash area last night, the district governor Muhammad Daud Nizami told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP). He said the police did not suffer casualties, and that he did not have information about casualties to the Taliban in the gunfight. However, the Taliban spokesman Qari Muhammad Yousaf Ahmad claimed that three policemen were killed and one more was injured in the attack. The checkpost was also destroyed in the attack, he claimed. The officials rejected the claims as false and said the security forces did not suffer casualties.

#5: In a separate incident, the Taliban spokesman said their fighters killed a commander of the Afghan Local Police, Abdul Manan, in Salimi area of Pashtun Zarghun district yesterday.

Posted by whisker at 4:24 AM

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