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


Tuesday, August 27, 2013

War News for Tuesday, August 27, 2013

NATO is reporting the death of another ISAF soldier from a roadside bombing in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Monday, August 26th.


Top Ingushetia security official killed in attack: reports


Reported security incidents
#1: The Afghan Taliban executed six men who worked for a government programme in western Herat. The men were shot in the head late on Monday, despite efforts by governor Fazlullah Wahidi to convince the Taliban the men did not work for him. The Afghan men worked for a World Bank-funded programme created by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development that aims to improve project management before the pullout of most foreign troops from the country next year.

#2: According to sources, militants stormed the security forces positions with heavy weapons in tehsil Sararogha of South Waziristan Agency (SWA).The security forces killed at least four terrorists in their prompt retaliation, forcing the attackers to flee. The security forces took in custody three bodies of the terrorists. One of the terrorists blew him up killing a security man and injuring two others. The security sources claimed that two suicide bombers were among the miscreants killed in the clash.

#3: Ten militants were killed Tuesday morning as they launched attack on Afghan border police checkpoints in Bala Murghab district of the western province of Badghis, a provincial source said, adding the clash is still continuing there. "Militants numbered several hundred raided the Afghan Border Police (ABP) checkpoints in areas near the border with Turkmenistan early Tuesday morning. The clash is going on up to now later Tuesday," the provincial governor Ahmadullah Ahmadzai told Xinhua.

#4: Afghan National Police (ANP) have eliminated 27 militants and injured 11 others during separate cleanup operations since Monday morning, the country's Interior Ministry said Tuesday. "The ANP carried out several cleanup operations in close cooperation with army, National Security Directorate (NDS) and coalition forces in Kunduz, Kapisa, Balkh, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Wardak provinces. As a result 27 armed Taliban were killed and 11 others were wounded," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.
 

Posted by whisker at 3:29 AM

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