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, March 25, 2014

War News for Tuesday, March 25, 2014


Afghans Who Helped the U.S. Fear That Time for Visas Has Run Out


Reported security incidents
#1: The Taliban launched a brazen assault in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, with two suicide bombers detonating their explosives outside an election office on the city's outskirts and other attackers storming inside the premises. Fierce gunfire reverberated across the neighborhood in the early afternoon, as heavily armed troops from the Afghan rapid response force surrounded the office building, located near the home of presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai. He was not home at the time of the attack, officials said.


Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2014/03/25/5066205/afghan-police-detain-9-in-kabul.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2014/03/25/5066205/afghan-police-detain-9-in-kabul.html#storylink=cpy

#2: At least four militants and a policeman were killed on Tuesday when armed rebels stormed a local bank in Asadabad, the provincial capital of eastern Afghan province of Kunar, leading to a gunfight, a security official said. "Four militants stormed a local bank in Asadabad. They seized the bank compound at around 10.30 a.m. and started firing at surrounding government office buildings," a security source told Xinhua, adding that the attackers and one policeman were killed in the incident.

#3: The bullet-riddled and severely tortured body of a female polio vaccinator, who was kidnapped from her house in Peshawar in Pakistan, has been found in a field.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2014/03/25/5066205/afghan-police-detain-9-in-kabul.html#storylink=cpy

 #4: A total of 16 insurgents were killed during military operations across Afghanistan since early Monday, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

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