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


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

War News for Tuesday, March 05, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: Units of Afghan police have killed 11 Taliban militants during a series of operations and arrested 19 others over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Tuesday. During the operations which carried out in Kandahar, Nangarhar, Laghman, Zabul, Paktiya, Uruzgan, Herat and Helmand provinces, the police also discovered a number of arms and ammunitions, the statement added. It did not say if there were any casualties on the police personnel.

#2: Up to four insurgents have been killed and eight others detained in different operations carried out by Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition troops, in the latest raids against insurgency in the war-hit country, the coalition forces said on Tuesday. "An Afghan and coalition force killed four insurgents and wounded three others during a security operation in Ghaziabad district, Kunar province, yesterday," the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release.

#3: On Monday, four Afghan border policemen and a civilian were injured when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off in Khost city, capital of eastern Khost province 150 km southeast of Kabul.

#4: Afghan interior ministry officials on Tuesday announced to foil a deadly attack on Afghan parliament after discovering and seizing around 15 rounds of missiles from capital Kabul. The officials further added that the militants were looking to carry out attack on an opening ceremony of the Afghan parliament and the missiles were planted in Char Asiab area.


Posted by whisker at 4:36 AM

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