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, May 27, 2014

War News for Tuesday, May 27, 2014


Reported security incidents
#1: Unidentified gunmen shot dead the director of Shaheed Mohammad Hashim Khan Dar-ul-Hifaz, a Quran memorization centre in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, an official said today. He was 70 years old. Mohammad Asif Shinwari, a spokesman for the Department of Education (MoE), condemned the assassination of Maulvi Daud Shah and demanded the immediate arrest of the killers. Gunmen took Shah out of school and sprayed him with bullets, Shinwari said. The incident took place in Ahmadkhel area of Khogyani district on Monday night.

#2: A Taliban suicide bomber on a motorbike killed at least two Afghan soldiers Monday in an attack on a military bus in Kabul as the country prepares to hold second-round presidential elections. "As a result, two soldiers were killed and nine others were wounded." The bus, which was badly damaged with its windows blown out, was hit in the southeast of the city while travelling on a dirt road near a cemetery.

#3: A total of 44 Taliban militants have been killed in Afghan security forces' cleanup operations since early Monday, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.

#4: According to local authorities in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan, at least eleven Taliban militants were killed following a NATO airstrike.

Posted by whisker at 4:23 AM

1 comments:

Cervantes said...

The plan is now to keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan next year, after the "withdrawal." Although "combat" operations will be officially over, they will in fact continue to hunt for al Qaeda operatives, however defined. (The original al Qaeda doesn't really exist any more, it's a brand name that they failed to copyright, basically.)

May 27, 2014 at 9:10 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)