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, January 10, 2014

War News for Friday, January 10, 2014


The military is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers and one ISAF civilian from an airplane crash in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, January 10th.
 
 
Iraq holding off on an offensive against al-Qaida
 
7 cops killed north of Samarra'                    


Reported security incidents
#1: update - A Blackhawk helicopter that crashed in southern Afghanistan last month
killing six U.S. soldiers, was brought down by an enemy explosion, not gunfire or mechanical failure, U.S. military officials said Thursday. The UH-60 helicopter crashed in the Shahjoi district of Afghanistan's Zabul province on Dec. 17. Initial reports indicated it came under heavy enemy gunfire once it was on the ground, but later reports contradicted that, implying there was no enemy contact. On Thursday, U.S. military officials told NBC News the helicopter was in a low-hover position when a blast from the ground below caused it to crash. The helicopter was not shot down by enemy fire, and apparently no enemy forces were on the ground in the vicinity either before or after the fatal crash.

#2: A U.S. military  MC-12 plane crashed in eastern Afghanistan early Friday morning, killing three Americans.

#3: A senior Pakistani police investigator at the forefront of operations against the Taliban and other criminals in the sprawling, seaside city of Karachi was killed in a bomb blast there yesterday, police officials said. His driver and a security officer also were killed in the attack, and at least 11 people were reported wounded.

#4: Police say gunmen have shot to death two workers at a small Sufi Muslim shrine in northwest Pakistan. Local police official Iqbal Khan says the bodies of the men were found on Friday at the shrine of Ghazi Shah Baba in the northwestern city of Mardan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
 

#5: Two militants were killed while two women were wounded Friday in a premature explosion in Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of eastern Afghanistan's province of Nangarhar, police said.

#6: At least seven people including police officers and civilians were killed or injured following twin suicide attacks in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan. Provincial governor spokesman, Omar Zwak confirming the report, said a group of three suicide bombers attacked a police station in the first district of Lashkargah city late Thursday evening. Mr. Zwak confirmed that one police officer was killed and six others including policemen and civilians were injured following the twin suicide attacks.

2 comments:

Cervantes said...

Most awful: Afghan toddler killed by U.S. troops.

"US forces stationed in Afghanistan accidentally gunned down a four-year-old boy, say local officials. . . .

“As the weather was dusty, the marine forces based there thought he was enemy and opened fire. As a result of mistaken fire, he was killed,” the spokesman for the governor of Helmand Province, Omar Zwak, told Reuters."

That's a whole lot of dust.

Dancewater said...

sure would be good to have a complete list of all people, and their ages, in our wars.

It would be a very long list.