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


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

War News for Wednesday, December 11, 2013

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a roadside bombing in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, December 11th.


Reported security incidents
#1: A car bomb went off Wednesday near a gate used by NATO troops in the northern section of the Kabul airport, the Afghan Interior Ministry said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn bombing, which caused no casualties. The German military said one of its convoys returning to the facility was targeted in the explosion, which damaged two vehicles.

Czech chief of staff Petr Pavel was at the air base in Kabul at the time when a suicide bomber attacked the ISAF troops there in the morning but neither Pavel nor any Czech soldiers at the base were injured, according to CTK information. The attacker died on the spot. An allied military vehicle was destroyed and the entrance to the gate was partially damaged.

#2: Rocket attack by Taliban militants on a village in Afghanistan's Northwest Badghis province claimed the lives of six civilians on Monday night, the Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Tuesday.

#3: At least three civilians were killed or injured following a cross-border shelling by Pakistani military in eastern Khost province of Afghanistan.

Posted by whisker at 4:34 AM

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