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 8, 2013

War News for Friday, November 08, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: update: A British soldier was killed and five others injured by a suicide car bomber who rammed a Toyota Corolla packed with explosives into a troop convoy in Helmand province on Tuesday, British and Afghan officials have said. Three Afghan civil order police were also injured in the attack, a spokesman for the Helmand police chief said.

#2: Cleaner of a Nato container was injured when the vehicle was fired at by unidentified gunmen in Jamrud on Thursday. Khasadar officials said that the incident took place on the by-pass road where a container carrying unspecified goods for Nato forces was on its way to Afghanistan via Khyber Pass.

#3: At least five Afghan intelligence – National Directorate of Security (NDS) operatives were killed or injured following a roadside bomb blast in easter Khost province of Afghanistan on Thursday.

Posted by whisker at 4:12 AM

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