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, October 1, 2013

War News for Tuesday, October 01, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: Three bodies were found at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border near Zor Barawal (old Barawal) area but their identities couldn’t be ascertained.

#2: One Afghan army soldier and two civilians were wounded Tuesday morning in a bomb attack in western province of Herat, said the police. "An improvised explosive device (IED) placed in a main road in Herat city, capital of Herat province, was detonated when an army vehicle was passing by the area. One army soldier aboard the van and two civilian passers-by were wounded," a provincial police source told Xinhua.

#3: Twenty-six militants were killed in separate military operations launched by the Afghan police and army since early Monday, the country's Interior Ministry said Tuesday morning. Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) carried out several cleanup raids in Nangarhar, Faryab, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Ghazni provinces within the last 24 hours. As a result 26 armed Taliban were killed, two wounded and seven others were arrested by the ANSF," the ministry said in a statement.

#4: Three people including an intelligence official were injured as a bomb blast rocked Assadabad town in the eastern Kunar province on Tuesday, a local official said. "It was a remote-controlled roadside bomb which targeted the vehicle of the intelligence official Saranwal Malang outside provincial capital Assadabad, injuring him along with two of his bodyguards," the official told Xinhua but declined to be identified, saying authorized officials would brief the media after investigation.

Posted by whisker at 4:27 AM

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