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


Thursday, May 2, 2013

War News for Thursday, May 02, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: An Afghan security official says a border policeman has been killed in what appears to have been an exchange of fire with Pakistani troops along the boundary between the two nations. Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said on Thursday that Pakistani forces fired artillery rounds late Wednesday at Afghan border police in the Goshta district of eastern Nangarhar provice. He says that in an ensuing five-hour firefight, an Afghan border policeman was killed. But a Pakistani military official says the exchange involved Afghan militants firing at Pakistani border forces. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military policy.

#2: A Taliban bomb killed eight Afghan police Thursday in Logar province outside the capital Kabul, officials said, four days after the insurgents started their annual "spring offensive". The members of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) force were on a joint-patrol with NATO-led coalition forces near Puli Alam town when the blast was detonated. "One of the police vehicles hit an IED (improvised explosive device) in which eight local police were killed and their pick-up truck was totally destroyed," Rais Khan Sadeq, Logar provincial deputy police chief, told AFP.

#3: According to local authorities in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan, Taliban militants abducted around 28 Afghan local police forces after attacking a number of security check posts in Ghormach district. The officials further added, Taliban militants had abducted the Afghan local police officers from four security check posts. In the meantime local tribal elders in Faryab province are saying that Taliban militants have abducted around 46 local police officers during the attack which continued for several hours however neither the Taliban militants nor Afghan security forces suffered any casualties.

#4: Units of Afghan police raided Taliban hideouts in Ghazni province 125 km south of Kabul late Wednesday night, leaving six militants dead, provincial police chief Zarawar Zahid said Thursday. "The operation was launched in Zana Khan District late last night and lasted for a while during which six rebels had been killed," Zahid told Xinhua.


MoD: Corporal William Savage

MoD: Fusilier Samuel Flint

MoD: Private Robert Hetherington

Posted by whisker at 3:42 AM

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