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, March 21, 2014

War News for Friday, March 21, 2014


AFP reporter killed in Kabul hotel attack -- Sardar Ahmad, a staff reporter at the Agence France-Presse news agency, was killed in a Taliban attack on Kabul's Serena hotel, it was confirmed Friday. Ahmad, 40, was shot dead along with his wife and two of his three children when four teenage gunmen attacked the hotel on Thursday evening.

One of the civilians killed in the attack was a former Paraguayan diplomat who was in Afghanistan as an election observer, Paraguay’s Foreign Minister Eladio Loizaga said.


Reported security incidents
#1: Four gunmen opened fire on guests in a luxury Kabul hotel restaurant in the latest violent attack in Afghanistan's capital city. The four gunmen were swift as they entered the luxury hotel in Kabul, although it took them a few minutes to find the restaurant that was their target, Afghan officials said on Friday as they pieced together details of the brazen attack that killed nine people, including four foreigners and two children who were shot in the head. Police killed all four attackers after a three-hour standoff, with shooting resounding through the cordoned off streets outside. He said the four foreigners killed were from Canada, New Zealand, Pakistan and India, but the New Zealand and Pakistani foreign ministries denied that any of their citizens were among the dead.

#2: Afghan officials say an explosion during a ceremony marking the Persian New Year has killed three people in the southern province of Kandahar. Police spokesman Zia Durani says militants used a new style of weapon in Friday's attack. He says they threw an explosives-packed bottle that blew up when it landed on the ground. Durani says those killed included the head of the provincial media center chief and two policemen. He says seven other people were wounded.
 

Posted by whisker at 4:28 AM

1 comments:

Cervantes said...

Still a lot of confusion over the nationalities of the dead in the hotel attack - but regardless, this is a significant event. It suggests that the Afghan security forces are either incompetent or corruptible, and that there are still plenty of young men willing to die for the Taliban. It's causing aid agencies to pull out and making the upcoming elections look increasingly implausible. Right now, I'm not sure what the best hope is for Afghanistan.

March 21, 2014 at 10:22 AM

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