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, March 6, 2013

War News for Wednesday, March 06, 2013


FBR given two weeks time for recovery of ISAF containers' losses

U.S. not to leave Afghanistan: Ambassador to Pakistan


Reported security incidents
#1: Sixteen Afghan soldiers and policemen have been killed by the insurgents in the Warduj district of remote northern Badakhshan province, an official said on Wednesday. The Taliban had seized 23 security personnel following an ambush on a joint convoy of the army and police in the Ghani area of the district three days ago, the governor’s spokesman said. Abdul Maroof Rasikh told an Afghan news agency that 16 of the captives were later shot dead and their bodies handed over to area residents. Most of the victims were army troops, he said. Mohammad Khawar, the district chief, said the remaining seven security personnel had been set free as a result of intervention from local elders. After consulting local authorities, he indicated an operation would be launched shortly to clear the district of the Taliban.

#2: The police on early Wednesday morning foiled a massive terror bid by recovering a 40 kilogram bomb from a rickshaw and defusing it timely on Saryab Road in Quetta. According to sources, the police cordoned off the area after getting information about presence of a suspicious rickshaw near hospital on Saryab Road. The bomb disposal squad arrived on the spot and recovered a 40 kilograms’ bomb from the rickshaw and successfully defused it.

#3: Two Italian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were injured on Wednesday in a bomb attack on a military patrol in the western Afghan province of Farah. The three were taken by helicopter to a United States camp hospital at Farah with arm injuries and are not said to be in a serious condition. The soldiers are part of the Italian contingent in the NATO-led ISAF mission in Afghanistan.

#4: According to local security officials in north-eastern Takhar province of Afghanistan, an Afghan kid was injured following a suicide bomb blast in this province. The incident took place around 3pm local time after the suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a residential house. Provincial security commandment spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai confirming the report said the incident took place in the 3rd district of Takhar city.




6 comments:

Dancewater said...

The US will only leave Afghanistan if the Afghan government is strong enough to not allow immunity to US troops (like Iraq did). I don't think they are that strong.

Dancewater said...

and because of this evil, many, many, many babies and children will die horrible deaths, far into the future: "More than 400 tonnes of DU ammunition are estimated to have been fired by jets and tanks in the two Iraq wars in 1991 and 2003, the vast majority by US forces. The UK government says that British forces fired less than three tonnes. DU is a chemically toxic and radioactive heavy metal produced as waste by the nuclear power industry. It is used in weapons because it is an extremely hard material capable of piercing armour."

True for Iraq and also true for Afghanistan

Dancewater said...

"The US and the UK have sought to play down overwhelming evidence that their invasion and occupation has produced one of the most dysfunctional and crooked governments in the world. Iraq has been violent and unstable for so long that Iraqis and foreigners alike have become desensitised to omens suggesting that, bad as the situation has been, it may be about to get a great deal worse."

Ten years after

Dancewater said...

TEN YEARS LATER, THE DIXIE CHICKS WERE THE ONES WHO TOLD THE TRUTH AND STOOD FOR JUSTICE. GOD BLESS THE DIXIE CHICKS... THEY ARE THE REAL AMERICANS! THEY ARE HEROINES IN MY EYES!


Dixie Chicks right all along

Dancewater said...

NOT READY TO MAKE NICE

Anyone who supported the war of aggression on Iraq is a mass murderer in my eyes, and the blood will never wash off of you.

Dancewater said...

REVEALED: Pentagon's link to Iraqi torture centers and death squads

This article failed to mention Negroponte and the "El Salvador option". It mentions the Badr Brigade, but not the Wolf Brigade. Those of us who followed the news on Iraq the past 10 years knew all of this was happening almost as soon as it happened - the Iraqi people told us, and like the Dixie Chicks they were telling the truth. (I have not watched the entire film yet.)

I wish they would see justice on this earth, but since they won't:

May all those evil shits rot in hell forever. Especially Negroponte.