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, February 3, 2013

News of the Day for Sunday, February 3, 2013

IED kills a family of five, including two young children, as they are driving in Helmand province.

Two police officers are killed by an IED elsewhere in Helmand.

At a Kabul conference on security, the chief of the Transition Coordination Commission, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadza, says the government has neglected the provinces of Logar and Maiden Wardak, resulting in less security and creating a threat to security in Kabul. "The Minister of Education Farooq Wardak, who is a former Wardak resident, agreed with the TCC's claim that the government had neglected the two provinces. "The security condition in Maidan Wardak and Logar was very good in 2006 and 2007. However, it became worse because of the inconsideration of the government."

President Karzai is in London  for a summit with British and Pakistani leaders.

In Pakistan, meanwhile, suicide attack on a military post in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province leaves 13 soldiers and 11 civilians dead . Taliban spokesman says the attack is in retaliation for a drone strike. "The Pakistan army and security forces provide assistance to the US for drone strikes. So, we are taking revenge for their cooperation with the US."

Remember Iraq, which used to be the focus of this blog? As you may have read, John McCain spent considerable time badgering SecDef nominee Chuck Hagel to admit that he was wrong to have opposed the so-called "surge" in Iraq, which McCain insists totally worked. That's because John McCain has been paying no attention to Iraq, which is steadily coming apart at the seams. Attack on police HQ in Kirkuk leaves 33 dead.


1 comments:

Dancewater said...

the myth of the surge lives on, and the reality of Iraq is ignored.

And someone had the stupidity to argue that 'just because Iraq was a debacle' does not mean we should refrain from interfering in Syria! They totally ignore how Iraq was so very much worse than Syria is today. (Amazingly, our media can report on the deaths in Syria - but could not/did not on Iraq. Ditto for the refugees. What a bunch of corporate whores our mainstream media is!)