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, June 21, 2013

War News for Friday, June 21, 2013


Chomsky terms surveillance an attack on US citizens - snip -  “Governments should not have this capacity. But governments will use whatever technology is available to them to combat their primary enemy – which is their own population,” he said in an interview.

IOM worker injured in Kabul May 24 dies


Reported security incidents
#1: Militants armed with guns and rockets killed two members of a Pakistani pro-government militia and wounded two policemen in a tribal district on the Afghanistan border, officials said Friday. About a dozen insurgents attacked the homes of two tribal elders near Khar, the main town in Bajaur, late Thursday, administration official Abdul Haseeb said. The two elders, who were members of a pro-government tribal militia, were killed and two tribal policemen were wounded, Haseeb told AFP.

#2: A bomb attack has killed 14 people and wounded more than 25 others at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque and seminary on the outskirts of Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, police say. "It was a suicide attack in which 14 people were killed and more than 25 others were wounded," senior police official Shafi Ullah told AFP at the scene on Friday. "The suicide bomber, who was on foot, first opened fire at police guards who were deployed outside the mosque, then entered the prayer hall where he blew himself up amid worshippers just before the start of prayers."

#3: Afghan police backed by the units of the national army eliminated over two dozen Taliban militants including some commanders in the eastern Nangarhar province, 120 km east of Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday, Interior Ministry said in a statement on Friday. "Personnel of national police backed by the army raided Taliban hideouts in Achin district of Nangarhar province late Thursday night killing 25 rebels including eight local commanders," the statement said.

#4: According to local authorities in northern Parwan province of Afghanistan, Taliban militants have beheaded two Afghan security forces along with their two family members in this province.
Provincial governor Basir Salangi confriming the report said, “Taliban militants beheaded an Afghan intelligence officer along with a member of his family, and an Afghan police officer together with his brother.”
 
 
US/DoD: Sgt. Justin R. Johnson
 
US/DoD: Spc. Ember M. Alt
 
US/DoD: Spc. Robert W. Ellis
 
US/DoD: Spc. William R. Moody

Posted by whisker at 4:20 AM

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