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, May 2, 2014

War News for Friday, May 02, 2014


Osama bin Laden: Three years after Abbottabad


Reported security incidents
#1: At least six policemen were killed and several civilians wounded in suicide bombing in Afghanistan, authorities said. The bombing took place Thursday evening in the eastern Afghan province of Panjshir, Xinhua quoted the country's interior ministry as saying. The ministry statement said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden sedan at a security checkpoint leaving six police officers dead and injuring several civilians. Unofficial sources said that 12 people were killed and more than 20 others were wounded in the attack in the province, 200 km north of Afghanistan's capital Kabul.

#2: In one attack, three Afghan police and two militants were killed in a Taliban attack on police checkpoints in Dasht-e-Archi district of northern Kunduz province early Thursday, the district governor Hamid Agha told Xinhua.

#3: Four policemen were killed when the Taliban launched an attack on security checkpoints in Ali Sheer district of eastern Khost province overnight. Three militants had been killed and one captured during the clash, the provincial government said in a statement.

#4: Gunmen shot dead a pro-government tribal elder and two others in a drive-by shooting in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said. The Chashma Pul area, five kilometres (miles) south of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, is known as a stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants. "Malik Qadir Khan was travelling to his village when four gunmen riding a car opened fire on his vehicle killing him and two others," a local administration official told on condition of anonymity.
#5: One and half dozen civilians were wounded as a bomb blast rocked Laghman's provincial capital Mehterlam city, 90 km east of Kabul on Friday, spokesman of provincial government Zarhadi Zawak said. "A total of 18 innocent civilians were injured as a sticky bomb targeted a police van in Mehterlam city blasted at 09:15 a.m. local time today," Zawak told Xinhua.

Posted by whisker at 4:04 AM

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