Today in The Endless War: War News for Friday, December 26, 2014

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, December 26, 2014

War News for Friday, December 26, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: Afghan officials said that a Nato air strike on Friday killed five civilians and wounded six others, just days before the US-led military coalition ends combat operations in the country. Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not immediately confirm the strike on Logar province, south of the capital Kabul, but always stresses that it tries to avoid civilian casualties.

#2: A US drone strike killed at least four militants in Pakistan's restive tribal region near the Afghan border Friday, Pakistani security officials said, the second such incident in a week.

#3: Two armed insurgents were killed and five others detained in a clash with Afghan security forces in Baghlan province. The clash occurred in Dahan-e-Ghoori district of that province while armed insurgents attacked on the base of security forces.