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


Saturday, May 11, 2013

War News for Saturday, May 11, 2013






Reported security incidents
#1: Unidentified kidnappers have abducted 11 Afghans working in a U.N.-affiliated landmine clearing program in the east of the country, officials said Saturday. The 11 were taken Thursday in a remote part of Nangarhar province, said Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal, provincial police spokesman. He did not name the abductors but said local officials and tribal elders were trying to negotiate the mine clearers’ freedom.

#2: An Afghan official says a bomb has killed a senior provincial intelligence official at his home in a remote northeastern corner of the country. Mohammed Zahir, spokesman for Nuristan's governor, said the province's deputy intelligence chief Faiz Mohammed died Saturday. It wasn't immediately known how the bomb was detonated but Mohammed was the only casualty.

#3: Units of Afghan police have eliminated more than two dozen Taliban militants during series of operations across the country over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Saturday. "The national police backed by the national army and NATO-led coalition forces have killed 26 armed Taliban rebels and injured 13 others throughout the country over the past 24 hours," the statement added. However, it did not say if there were any casualties on police.

#4: According to local authorities in eastern Kapisa province of Afghanistan, at least three people including a suicide bomber were killed and four others were injured following a suicide attack in Tagab district. Provincial governor spokesman, Qaisa Qadiri confirming the report said the incident took place on Friday afternoon after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a vehicle in Tetarkhel area.

Posted by whisker at 5:09 AM

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