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 29, 2013

War News for Friday, November 29, 2013


NATO probes Afghan airstrike that killed child

3 Canadian veterans from Afghan war found dead in a week

Old Etonian army officer shot dead at point blank range moments after giving a gun back to Afghan 'ally'


Reported security incidents
#1: A helicopter that was attacked in eastern Afghanistan apparently belonged to a Russian company, Russian diplomats said Friday. Unidentified men fired at the helicopter in the province of Gardez on Thursday. No injuries were reported, and damage from the attack was limited to a single bullet hole in the aircraft’s side, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul said.

#2: A US drone strike targeting a militant compound killed at least two suspected insurgents in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border on Friday, officials said. The strike took place in the Anghar area, 10 kilometres (six miles) south of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal region, a stronghold for Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants. "A US drone fired two missiles on a militant compound, killing two suspected militants," a senior security official told AFP.

#3: One Afghan child was killed and seven civilians wounded Friday in a suicide bomb attack in the country's southern province of Kandahar, said the provincial sources.

#4: Two Afghan civilians were killed and two others wounded Friday in a shooting in the country's northern province of Kunduz, the police said. "Two civilians were killed and two others wounded in a shooting incident in Jargozar area of the provincial capital Kunduz city early Friday morning," the deputy provincial police chief Gen. Ebadullah Talwar told Xinhua.

Posted by whisker at 4:38 AM

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