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


Wednesday, November 19, 2014

War News for Wednesday, November 19, 2014


Germany and Italy to keep up to 1,350 soldiers in Afghanistan



Reported security incidents
#1: A grenade attacked killed two policemen and wounded another in Charsadda on Tuesday, police said. The incident happened in the Shabqadar area of the district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Two men riding a motorbike threw a hand grenade on a police vehicle patrolling the area, killing two policeman and wounding another one,” said district police chief Shafiullah Khan.

#2: Security officials said military planes pounded positions of the banned Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Nakai and Kukikhel areas of Tirah valley, killing seven militants and destroying three of their hideouts. The claim could not be independently verified.

#3: Meanwhile, sources in Mehraban Kalay of Tirah valley said that a man was publicly killed by militants on a charge of spying.

#4: A suicide car bomb rocked Shinkai district in the southern Afghanistan's Zabul province on Wednesday, leaving the bomber dead, provincial police chief Ghulam Sakhi Rogh Liwanai said. one police was slightly injured in the blast.

#5: At least 91 armed oppositions were killed following clearing operations led by Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) during the last 24 hours in several provinces of the country.

#6: In a drone attacks of NATO forces in Kunar province 4 armed rebels killed including two commanders.

Posted by whisker at 4:10 AM

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