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, May 12, 2013

News of the Day for Sunday, May 12, 2013

Cross-border shelling by Pakistani military kills one child, injures five people, in Kunar province. There are said to have been two separate barrages, of 30 and 35 missiles, in different locations.

District attorney for Marjah, Helmand province, is killed by an IED. Lal Mohammad's vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb while he was on his way to work.

An Afghan delegation will visit Iran today  to investigate what they claim are killing of numerous Afghan laborers who entered Iran illegally from Farah province.

Ten Afghan migrants are said to have been killed by Iranian border guards in Herat.

Two Afghan diplomats are killed, along with others, in an explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan. It does not seem they were targeted -- the target is said to have been a nearby police van.

In a further indication of the historical tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, president Karzai condemns a deadly attack on the offices of the Awami National Party (ANP) in Karachi. This is an ethnically based Pashtun party. As we noted last week, the border between the two nations, drawn by the British in 1893, divides the Pashtun homeland.

Karzai meets with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns. He repeats his demand that the U.S. hand over its Afghan prisoners in Guantanamo to Afghanistan, and reiterates that Afghanistan does not recognize the "Durand Line," the border with Pakistan.






Posted by Cervantes at 4:57 AM

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