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 23, 2014

War News for Friday, May 23, 2014


CIA’s Memorial Wall for fallen operatives is shaped by a Northern Virginia stone carver

Operation launched to retake control of Yamgan district


Reported security incidents
#1:  A handful of heavily armed insurgents, including suicide bombers, launched a rocket-propelled grenade and gun attack on the Indian consulate in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat hours before dawn on Friday, officials said. Indian staff at the mission escaped soon after the shooting began at around 3am. Police said Afghan security forces had killed the attackers, who were holed up in buildings overlooking the consulate, following a firefight that lasted several hours. There were three suicide bombers armed with AK-47, RPG, hand grenade and suicide vests. Our security forces killed all of them. Only five of our security forces were wounded

#2: At least four suspected militants were killed in Pakistan Friday as the army intensified its attacks in the North Waziristan region, media reported. The four were killed as security forces entered the Machis Camp area on the outskirts of agency headquarters in Miramshah which is considered a stronghold of foreign militants, most of them Uzbeks, Dawn online reported.

Posted by whisker at 4:41 AM

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