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 8, 2013

War News for Tuesday, October 08, 2013


Minn.native injured in Afghanistan


Reported security incidents
#1: At least three people were killed in a bomb attack in Afghanistan's Wardak province, officials said Tuesday. "On Monday evening, three people were killed when a bomb attached to their vehicle by militants was detonated in the provincial capital Maidan Shar," Xinhua reported citing a provincial government statement. The victims were employees of a local construction company, Aziz Hashimi, and were travelling to a construction site when the incident took place, the statement said.

#2: At least nine people including four police personnel were injured when a police station came under a grenade attack on the outskirts of Quetta in the restive Balochistan province. Police reports said that some miscreants on motorbikes hurled a hand grenade at New Sariyab Road police station on Tuesday morning.

#3: The Afghan Interior Ministry on Tuesday said that 21 militants were killed and five wounded in operations since early Monday in different provinces. In past 24 hours, Afghan National Police (ANP) conducted several cleanup operations with the cooperation of army, National Directorate for Security and Coalition Forces in Kunar, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Jawzjan, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Wardak and Helmand provinces, killing 21 armed Taliban and wounding five other militants," the ministry said in a statement.

Posted by whisker at 4:21 AM

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