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


Monday, June 10, 2013

War News for Monday, June 10, 2013

The Polish DND is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a roadside bombing in Ghazni province, Afghanistan on Monday, June 10th. Here’s the ISAF release.


TAMU Graduate Killed In Afghanistan

String of bombings kill 12 in Iraq market: officials


Reported security incidents
#1: Militants attacked NATO supply trucks in northwest Pakistan with guns and mortars on Monday, setting vehicles ablaze and killing at least six people, officials said. The attack took place in Khyber district, one of seven tribal areas on the Afghan border that are a haven for Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked insurgents. Up to 20 armed militants targeted at least three Afghanistan-bound vehicles loaded with military equipment, said senior administration official Jehangir Azam. "At least three NATO vehicles caught fire, four people died on the spot and two wounded in the attack expired later in hospital," Azam told AFP. Another official , Asmatullah Wazir, said four NATO vehicles were hit and three of them caught fire in the attack in the Shagai area, 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of Landi Kotal, the district's main town.

#2: At least seven heavily armed Taliban insurgents attacked near Afghanistan's main airport Monday, apparently trying to attack NATO's airport headquarters with rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and at least one large bomb. Security forces engaged in an hours-long battle and killed all the attackers. Kabul police said in an announcement that attackers wearing suicide vests had occupied one or two buildings under construction on the west side of the airport and were firing at the military facility, which was quite a distance away. But it was uncertain if they actually managed to hit anything inside the airport.

#3: The security forces have killed 35 terrorists and injured 15 during operations in Khyber Agency's Tirah Valley and Kurram Agency. According to the ISPR, one soldier was killed and five others sustained injuries in the encounters during the last two days. After the clearance of Muhammadi Top in Kurram and Haider Kandao in Tirah Valley, the security forces made significant gains on the nights of the sixth, seventh, and eighth of this months, and cleared main areas of Maidan. The forces took full control of heights on the central Derastani Ridge that overlooks the entire Maidan and Kukikhel Valley.

#4: Meanwhile, three soldiers were killed and four wounded in bomb attacks on military convoys in North Waziristan on Sunday, officials said. "A military convoy comprising 35 vehicles was on its way to the northwestern town of Bannu from Razmak when an improvised explosive device planted along the roadside went off, killing three soldiers," a local intelligence official said. The official, who requested anonymity, said two soldiers were wounded in the explosion 70 kilometres south of Miranshah, the main town in the region. Another two soldiers were wounded in a second bomb attack on a military convoy 20 kilometres east of Miranshah. According to official sources, militants targeted the convoy with an IED and two rockets. A local tribal police official, Ali Muhammad, confirmed the two attacks and casualties.

#5: A suicide bomber blew himself up Monday in Zabul's provincial capital Qalat, killing six people, police said.


Pol/DnD: Plut. Jan Kiepura