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


Monday, February 3, 2014

War News for Monday, February 03, 2014


Reported security incidents
#1: Pakistani police say a bomb attack in a cinema in the northwestern city of Peshawar has killed five people. Police official Zahid Khan says the explosion on Sunday night also wounded 30 people.

#2: A roadside mine went off injuring a 12-year-old child in southern province of Kandahar’s Mianshin district, an official said Monday. The child was busy to collect dried bushes for fire in a village of the district, said the governor spokesman, Jawid Faisal in a statement.

#3: At least two people were killed when an explosive went off in the capital (Kabul), the security forces aid Monday.

#4: Two men more allegedly insurgents were killed on Sunday when their Improvised Explosive Devices (IED)s went off prior to be succeeded of their aims to plant them in their scheduled site where a security forces convoy was expected to patrol. The incident took place in Arghastan district of the province, with two rebels planning to plant mines to target the Afghan security forces, but they were killed as a result and no troops were harmed, the ministry of interior said.

#5: Units of police backed by the army have killed three Taliban militants and captured 17 others during series of operations across the country over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a press release issued here on Monday.

Posted by whisker at 4:04 AM

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