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, May 15, 2013

War News for Wednesday, May 15, 2013


Afghan Commandos Step Up Their Combat Role


Reported security incidents
1: Two bombs exploded at a checkpoint outside a provincial governor's compound in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least one police officer, an official said. The explosions struck in the early morning in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. The first bomb wounded a policeman, and the second was remotely detonated minutes later as police swarmed to the blast scene to secure it. The second explosion killed one police officer and wounded at least five policemen and three civilian passers-by who were on their way to a nearby park, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the governor

#2: Thirty-five Taliban militants have been killed and 30 others wounded during operation across Afghanistan within the last 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said Wednesday afternoon. "Afghan police supported by the army and NATO-led coalition forces launched several cleanup operations in Kunduz, Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours. As a result 22 armed Taliban were killed, 23 wounded and seven other armed Taliban were arrested," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates. Earlier on Wednesday, 13 Taliban militants were killed and seven wounded when the police forces conducted an operation in Kamdish district in the country's eastern province of Nuristan, the ministry added. It also said that a policeman was killed and another policeman was wounded in the operations which began at around 2:00 a.m. local time Wednesday in the province 180 km east of Kabul.

#3: Six insurgents have been killed and five others detained in military operations in eastern Afghan provinces within the last 24 hours, said the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces Wednesday morning. "Afghan National Security and Coalition Forces killed six insurgents, detained five suspected insurgents, discovered one weapons cache and found and safely cleared five improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during operations in eastern Afghanistan throughout the past 24 hours," the ISAF's Regional Command-East said in a press release. The operations were conducted in Ghazni, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Paktia, Paktika and Parwan provinces, the release added.

2 comments:

debby said...

Praying for the safe return of all of our soldiers.

Unknown said...

Its like always a sad post entry with words "killed" :-( will it ever ends??