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, June 16, 2013

News of the Day for Sunday, June 16, 2013

Three civilians are killed by a roadside bomb in Uruzgan. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident. Other accounts give the death toll as 4, in what appears to be the same incident.

Taliban leader Motasim Agha Jan tells TOLO the Taliban are ready to negotiate for peace. He says they do not want to seize power but will accept the results of elections. He also implies that he represents a "moderate" faction and that there is a faction which is not prepared to negotiate.

In a somewhat omninous speech to the Afghan parliament, Minister of Information and Culture Sayed Makhdoom Raheen says he will shortly disclose the names of media organizations and journalists that are "insulting the country's respected personalities and their broadcasting is un-Islamic." There appears to be considerable controversy in parliament over the basic principle of media freedom.

The final phase of talks to complete a U.S.-Afghan security agreement will begin in a few days.

A review of "Investment in Blood," by Frank Ledwidge: "Frank Ledwidge was a “justice adviser” in Britain’s para-colonial administration in Helmand. As well as spending 15 years as a naval reserve officer, he once practised as a barrister – and it shows. In a closely argued book, he produces a devastating indictment of the utter, unanswerable folly of Britain’s military intervention in southern Afghanistan. If those of us complicit in the error were ever brought to justice, this would be the case for our prosecution." He alleges that Britain did not even attempt to count the civilian casualties from the intervention; and that the enormous expenditure of treasure in Afghanistan was for no good purpose at all.

Hamid Karzai endorses Pakistani president Prime Minister (of course) Nawaz Sharif's call for an end to U.S. drone attacks in Afghanistan.

A mob attacked a doctor and his female patient in Sar-I-Pul, after it was found that he had treated her without a chaperone present. There are conflicting reports over whether the doctor was stoned to death, or had escaped with injuries.




Posted by Cervantes at 5:17 AM

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