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


Friday, November 1, 2013

War News for Friday, November 01, 2013


Missing containers, missing weapons?

Analysis: Drone discrepancy


Reported security incidents
#1: Eleven people were wounded overnight when a bomb went off in northern Afghanistan's Baghlan province during a wedding party, sources said on Friday. "A wedding party was underway in Baghlan-e-Markazi district Thursday night. An improvised explosive device (IED) placed under the tent where people were celebrating the party was detonated, injuring 11 people," the district governor Gohar Shah Babori told Xinhua.

#2: Unknown miscreants attacked a security forces camp with rockets here on Friday but no loss was reported. According to military sources, three rockets fired from unknown location landed at a security forces camp in Miranshah, the tribal headquarter of North Waziristan Agency (NWA). However, no damages or causalities were reported as the rockets fell in the vacant space of the camp.

#3: One dozen militants, including a Taliban shadow district governor, were killed in an Afghan army overnight operation in the country's eastern province of Ghazni, said a source on Friday.

#4: At least five kids were killed or injured following a mortar shell explosion in central Maidan Wardak province of Afghanistan.

Posted by whisker at 4:32 AM

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)