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


Friday, May 3, 2013

War News for Friday, May 03, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: A U.S. military aircraft is missing after taking off Friday in Kyrgyzstan, a Kyrgyz official said. The plane is from the Manas airport in Kyrgyzstan, according to Kylychbek Dosumbetov, the nation's Transport Ministry press secretary. A section of the airport is a U.S. air base that serves as a supply hub for forces in Afghanistan.

A U.S. military transport plane (refueling) carrying fuel crashed on Friday near the border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, an official from Kyrgyzstan's Emergencies Minister said. "(The plane) caught fire in the air and crashed," the official said. The plane disappeared from radar near the Kyrgyz village of Chaldovar, 90 km (55 miles) from the U.S. airforce base at Manas in Kyrgyzstan, which U.S. forces maintain for operations in Afghanistan.

#2: Four militants, including a senior insurgent leader, were killed Friday when Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition troops launched an operation in northern province of Baghlan, according to coalition statement issued here. "An Afghan and coalition security force killed a senior insurgent leader, Jamal, who had ties to both the Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Three other insurgents were killed and two insurgents detained during the operation in Burkah district, Baghlan province, today," the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

#3: In addition, the joint forces also killed four insurgents and detained 12 other suspects during separate operations in eastern and southern provinces earlier in the day and Thursday, according to the statement.

#4: Units of Afghan national police have killed nearly five dozen Taliban militants across the conflict- ridden country over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Thursday.

Posted by whisker at 4:44 AM

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