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


Saturday, February 8, 2014

War News for Saturday, February 08, 2014


Reported security incidents
#1: An election campaign worker was kidnapped and killed by unidentified armed men in Afghanistan's Saripul province Friday, police said Saturday, blaming the Taliban for the murder. "The body of Hajji Yasin, who had campaigned for presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah, was found from a road Friday night," Xinhua quoted police chief Noor Habib Gulbahari as saying. 

#2: At least two people including a child were killed and nine others including a woman injured when a blast took place in eastern province of Nangarhar, an official said Saturday. The incident took place at about 1pm in 2nd district of the province near the Bibi Hawa Girls School, where chief of the provincial public health dept., Najibullah Kamawal told Wakht News Agency that two people including a child and nine others including a woman were wounded in the blast rocked the nearby buildings.

#3: On Friday night, two policemen were killed while three others injured when a suicide bomber blew up his explosive-laden vehicle during a security check in Khanewal area, a district in the country's eastern Punjab province. Local officials said that policemen stopped a suspected vehicle at a security check post when the bomber blew up himself, killing two policemen right at the spot and injuring three others.

#4: In a separate incident on Friday morning, four policemen including an officer were killed and several others injured during a shootout with robbers in Dera Ghazi Khan, another district in the Punjab province. Officials said that the policemen stopped a suspicious car at a picket when the people sitting inside speeded up the vehicle and fled away. Following the incident, police carried out a search operation in the neighboring area during which an exchange of firing took place and four policemen were killed and several others including cops and passersby got injured.

Posted by whisker at 3:46 AM

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