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, January 7, 2014

War News for Tuesday, January 07, 2014


Reported security incidents
#1: A police was killed and three others wounded in a military operation in Herat province yesterday.
An official of Herat security directorate said BNA, a police was martyred and three others wounded in an operation carried out by security forces in Shindand district. According to the source, during the operation also ten Taliban including a commander of them was killed

#2: Sixteen militants were killed while 15 others wounded in military operations across Afghanistan within the last 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Tuesday morning. "Afghan National Police (ANP), army and the National Directorate for Security (NDS) carried out cleanup operations in Nangarhar, Uruzgan, Logar, Ghazni, Paktiya, Herat and Nimroz provinces, killing 16 armed Taliban members, wounding 15 militants and arresting 13 others over the past 24 hours,"the ministry said in a statement.

#3: At least three civilians were killed following a roadside improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in south-eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan.

Posted by whisker at 4:49 AM

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