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, November 12, 2013

War News for Tuesday, November 12, 2013


Soldier shot dead during military exercise before deployment in Afghanistan

Militant Leader Is Killed in Pakistan

Afghan intelligence abandon probe into civilians deaths by US forces


Reported security incidents
#1: Two Taliban militants were killed and five others including three Taliban fighters and two policemen sustained injuries as clash erupted in Afghan Jauzjan province with Shiberghan as its capital Monday night, police said Tuesday.

#2: Units of Afghan police backed by the army have killed 14 Taliban militants throughout the country over the past 24 hours, Afghan Interior Ministry (MoI) said in a statement released here on Tuesday.

1 comments:

Dancewater said...

kidnapping, torture, rape, murder, desecration of the corpse .... all in a day's work for the US military.

and then they lie about it.