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, September 19, 2014

War News for Friday, September 19, 2014


Final agreement on Afghan unity government expected today

Whitman-Hanson graduate's death in Afghanistan reopens old wounds


Reported security incidents
#1: Afghan police say a bomb blast in northern Afghanistan killed at least six people shortly after they left a mosque in northern Afghanistan following Friday prayers.on September 19. Baghlan province police spokesman Jawad Basharat said the blast, which also injured 12 people, occurred just outside the mosque.

#2: Elsewhere, Din Mohammad Darwish, the spokesman for the governor of Logar province, said four police were killed during a battle with Taliban insurgents on September 18.

#3: Three suspected militants were killed in a roadside blast in northwestern Khyber Agency in a fresh wave of infighting that has already claimed over 100 lives since March. A senior military official in the region, on condition of anonymity, told the Anadolu Agency that three militants were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) struck a vehicle carrying militants loyal to pro-Taliban Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) group led by Commander Mangal Bagh in the remote Sipah area of Khyber Agency.

#4: Pakistan's military says it has it killed 23 militants in aerial strikes across North Waziristan tribal district in the northwest region near the Afghan border. In a statement issued to the media on Friday, the military said: "Today in precise aerial strikes carried out on terrorists hideouts in Zerom, Ismail Khel, and Datta Khel in North Waziristan, 23 terrorists were killed."

#5: A woman was killed and three others injured when unknown gunmen opened fire at a vehicle of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Bannu on Friday. The firing incident took place in Jani Khel area of Bannu where unidentified miscreants sprayed bullets at a vehicle with North Waziristan IDPs on board.

#6: "Militants planted explosive device on a motorbike and detonated it at the 9th police district of Kandahar city this afternoon injuring six persons including two security personnel and four children," spokesman for Kandahar provincial government, Samim Khapalwak told Xinhua. Meantime, an official on the condition of anonymity said that four security personnel and four civilians sustained injuries in the blast occurred at 03:20 p.m. local time Friday.

#7: Taliban militants assassinated a local tribal elder in northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan, local officials said. Tribal elder Haji Yousuf was reportedly organizing anti-Taliban public uprising in Aqcha district.

Posted by whisker at 6:10 AM

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