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, September 23, 2013

War News for Monday, September 23, 2013

The Romanian MoD is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from a roadside bombing in an unspecified location in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, September 22nd. News reports that they stepped on a mine. Here is the ISAF release.

The US/DoD is reporting the death of Spc. James T. Wickliffchacin who died at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas on Friday, September 20th. He was wounded from an IED blast in Pul-E-Alam, Logar province, Afghanistan on Monday, August 12th.


Blasts kill 78 at Pakistan church

Military moves into Nairobi mall after gunmen kill at least 69; most hostages freed.

70 voter registration centers closed in S. Afghanistan due to security problems


Reported security incidents
#1: An Afghan provincial official says gunmen have assassinated a district intelligence chief as he was riding his motorcycle to work. Police chief Ghulam Mohayuddin says the attack took place on Monday morning in northern Afghanistan, near Kunduz city, the capital of the province with the same name. He says two gunmen ambushed and shot to death Abdul Hussian, the district's chief of intelligence services, who was on his way to the Chardara district.

#2: At least six people were killed in a US drone strike on a militant compound in a northwestern Pakistani tribal area yesterday, officials said. The attack took place in Shawal , about 55 kilometres west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal district, along the Afghan border.

#3: A bomb targeting police killed at least five policemen and wounded three others in the restive Balochistan province on Monday. The attack was staged on Saranan Road in Pishin district, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.

#4: Afghan police, backed by the national army and the NATO-led forces, have eliminated nearly four dozen Taliban militants across the country over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Monday. "In past 24 hours, Afghan National Police backed by the national army and the NATO-led coalition forces have conducted series of operations in Kunar, Kapisa, Zabul, Uruzgan, Maidan Wardak, Logar, Paktika and Herat provinces, which left 46 armed Taliban dead," the statement contended.


ROM/MoD: Sergeant 1st Class Adrian Postelnicu

ROM/MoD:  Warrant Officer IIIrd Class Vasile Claudiu Popa

DoD: Sgt. William D. Brown III

DoD: Spc. James T. Wickliffchacin

Posted by whisker at 4:08 AM

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