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 24, 2014

War News for Monday, February 24, 2014


Reported security incidents
#1: Pakistani fighter jets pounded suspected militant hideouts in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency bordering Afghanistan as officials claimed to have killed scores of terrorists in the early morning strikes, officials said on Sunday. Security officials said over 20 insurgents were killed and scores injured when military jets pounded their hideouts this morning.

#2: Pakistani intelligence officials and militant commanders say gunmen have killed a top leader of the country's Taliban in a tribal region near Afghan border. The four officials and two militants say Asmatullah Shaheen Bitani and three aides died in the Monday shooting in North Waziristan. Bitani's cousin also confirmed his death.

#3: A bomb planted at a busy bus terminal near a police station in northwest Pakistan killed 14 people and wounding 15 near the country's lawless tribal region, authorities said. The explosion Sunday targeted passengers in a motorized rickshaw and those on a minibus in Kohat, some 150 kilometers (100 miles) west of the capital, Islamabad, police official Iqbal Khan said.

#4: It was reported from Miranshah that three rockets were fired at the camp of the security forces located in the area. All three rockets were fired from unknown directions during the night. Fortunately, no one was found injured or dead after the attack. 

#5: Afghanistan ministry of defense in a statement said Monday that three government armed oppositions were killed and two others wounded during a series of the forces operation in southern Kandahar province.

Posted by whisker at 4:37 AM

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