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, February 25, 2013

War News for Monday, February 25, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: Four Afghan civilians were killed and two others were wounded in explosion in the country's southern province of Helmand on Monday morning, police said. "A civilian car was running along a road in Sharsharak area of Marja district at about 9 a.m. local time but the ill-fated vehicle touched off an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and the explosion claimed the lives of four civilians and wounded two others," the provincial police department said in a statement issued here.
#2: Two policemen were killed and one injured when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the adjacent Uruzgan province, police spokesman Farid Ayel said. 'The incident took place in the outskirts of Trinkot city, the provincial capital,' Ayel said.

#3: AFGHAN security forces shot dead at least one would-be suicide bomber yesterday in a high-security area of Kabul, home to government departments and diplomatic missions, police said. The attack, one of four in Afghanistan early yesterday, happened near a construction site that was stormed by Taliban gunmen last April. The would-be bomber was carrying a gun and wearing an explosive vest when he was shot said Kabul police chief General Ayoub Salangi.

#4: Up to 29 militants have been killed and 29 others wounded in military operations in the past 24 hours, in the latest raids against insurgency in the country, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Monday. “Afghan National Police (ANP) in partnership with army and the NATO-led coalition forces carried out several cleanup operations in Nangarhar, Laghman, Badakhshan, Kandahar, Zabul, Logar, Ghazni, Paktiya, Herat, Badghis and Helmand provinces, killing 29 armed Taliban militants during the past 24 hours,” the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.

#5: A police head constable was gunned down by some unknown shooters in the Yakatoot Police Station area, interior City on Sunday morning, police confirmed. Head constable Farman Khan, residence of Tuheed Abad, Yakatoot was going for Fajr prayer when some unknown shooters raiding on a motorbike started indiscriminate firing on him, killing Farman Khan on the spot and made their escape goods. He was a CID Police head constable but was serving as the gunman of SSP Investigation these days.

#7: At least one security person was killed and several others injured when a bomb went off inside a fort of paramilitary troops in Pakistan's northwest tribal region of Khyber on Monday afternoon, local Urdu TV Geo reported.

Posted by whisker at 4:33 AM

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