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 17, 2013

War News for Monday, June 17, 2013

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from non-combat relater injuries in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, June 16th.


Reported security incidents
#1: Roadside bomb attacks killed 10 Afghan soldiers ahead of the handover this week of full security responsibility for the country, the Defence Ministry said on Monday, dpa reported. "Five soldiers were killed in Kandahar, Logar and Badkhshan provinces while five others were killed in Helmand province in roadside bombings," the ministry said in a statement without giving further details. The date of the attacks was not stated.

#2: Meanwhile, a provincial police chief escaped unhurt in a suicide attack Monday in the southern province of Helmand, but two of his bodyguards and two civilians were injured, a spokesman for the governor said. "The attacker detonated his explosives-laden car close to the convoy of Mohammad Nabi Elham this morning in Lashkargah city, as he was on the way to his office," Omar Zwak said. "Elham was not hurt, but two of his bodyguards in the second car and two civilian passersby were wounded," Zwak told dpa.

#3: Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine-guns into a convoy carrying goods to the Afghan capital on Monday, killing three drivers and wounding two others, an official said. Two of the container trucks caught fire and burned from the grenade blasts at about 2:30 a.m. on the main highway about 60 kilometres (37 miles) east of Kabul, said Sarhadi Zwak, spokesman for Laghman province where the attack took place.

#4: Casualties were feared as an explosion and ensuing firing hit the house of the provincial governor in northern Afghan province of Jawzjan on Monday, authorities and witnesses said.

Posted by whisker at 4:31 AM

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