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


Thursday, July 12, 2007




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Recent file photo of Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen who was killed along with driver Saeed Chmagh in Baghdad on July 12, 2007. The cause of the deaths was unclear, though first reports from the scene spoke of an explosion.

Recent file photo of Reuters driver Saeed Chmagh who was killed with photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen in Baghdad July 12, 2007. The cause of the deaths was unclear, though first reports from the scene spoke of an explosion.
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(1) MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier from a non-hostile, unspecified cause, presumably in Baghdad, on Wednesday, July 11th.
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(2) A lengthy article that appeared in the Deseret Morning News, and also another written by Salt Lake City (Utah) station KUTV, are reporting the death of Marine Staff Sergeant Faoa L. Apineru, 31, of Western Samoa on July 2nd. Apineru, who came to the U.S. in 1996, was a veteran of 10 years' service in the Marine Corps. In May of 2005, he was on his second tour of duty in Iraq patrolling the border when a roadside bomb detonated near him. The shrapnel injuries he received were horrific, requiring the reconstruction of this throat, his nose and his shoulders. Worse, shrapnel pierced his brain, sending him into a coma. When he eventually awoke, he couldn't remember anything or anyone and was like a child again having to re-learn basic tasks like eating and walking. As the months went on, he was bedeviled by PTSD, nightmares and emotional distress. And yet his progress over the course of two years of treatment was nothing short of remarkable. Unable to live on his own, he had been staying at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, CA, where he was known as "the mayor" because of his kind treatment of everyone there. Sadly, on July 2nd, Apineru died in his sleep.
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(3) ISAF is reporting the death of a NATO soldier from enemy action in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, July 12th. In addition, two NATO soldiers were wounded. As usual, the nationalities of the soldiers were not divulged at this point. The British Ministry of Defense is now confirming that the NATO soldier who was killed in southern Afghanistan on July 12th was British. The soldier, assigned to the 1st Battalion The Grenadier Guards, was shot to death near Gereshk in Helmand Province.
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Baghdad:
#1: In Baghdad, three people were killed when a barrage of mortars struck the south-eastern residential Al-Amin neighbourhood, a security official said. Eight other people were wounded.

#2: A security detainee died at the Theater Internment Facility at Camp Bucca, Iraq July 12 from injuries sustained after apparently being assaulted by other detainees. The detainee was pronounced dead at 1:01 a.m. by an attending physician at Camp Bucca’s medical facility. The incident is currently under investigation.

#3: An Iraqi photographer and driver working for Reuters in Iraq were killed in Baghdad on Thursday, the international news and information company said. Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, were killed in eastern Baghdad at a time when clashes had been taking place between U.S. forces and militants in the area. The cause of their deaths was unclear, although witnesses spoke of an explosion in the area. Iraqi police said either a U.S. air strike or a mortar attack had occurred.


Karbala:
#1: four members of a family were gunned down in the central Shi'ite shrine city of Karbala, security officials said. A group of armed men ambushed the family as they were driving in their car through Karbala's north-western Hai al Thawra neighbourhood, police Captain Qassim Kadhim said. Two more people were wounded when gunmen riddled the car with bullets, he said.

#2: A Filipino worker was confirmed killed along with three foreigners in an air strike at the Greenzone compound in Baghdad, the Department of Foreign Affairs reported Thursday. DFA Spokesman Claro Cristobal identified the victim as Cirilo Borgonia, 33, from Cebu City as one of three fatalities of the mortar attack in Baghdad's Greenzone on the evening of July 10.


Diwaniyah:
#1: Meanwhile, a pre-dawn US air strike in the central Shi'ite city of Diwaniyah killed five militants trying to plant a bomb on a road, the military said.

#2: A local police officer also reported clashes between Shi'ite Mahdi Army militants and US forces. "Three militants were killed in the clashes in the city's central Al-Jhamuriyah neighbourhood," he said on condition of anonymity, saying clashes erupted after US forces attacked militants firing mortars on their base.


BasraL
#1: Major Bird said that the British bases in the former presidential palaces area in central Basra and the Basra international airport northwest of the city came under indirect fire during the past 24 hours without human or material damage resulting.


Samarra:
#1: U.S. choppers shelled al-Saayawiyah in southern Samarra for four hours late Wednesday, targeting a number of houses and farms, killing four civilians and injuring an unspecified number of persons," Chief of Albu Aswad tribe Sheikh Hazbar al-Aswadi told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Kirkuk:
#1: gunmen killed an Iraqi civilian and injured two others south of Kirkuk. On Wednesday night an armed group opened fire against a civilian car in Taza district, south of Kirkuk, killing Asaad Qadwiyah Saaeed and injuring two of his companions," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the independent news agency cy Voices of Iraq


Hawija:
#1: Meanwhile, the same source said "unidentified gunmen attacked the house of an Iraqi army soldier in al-Howayja district, southwest of Kirkuk, at dawn, injuring him and one of his family."The source did not add further details.


Mosul:
#1: A police source said on Wednesday that at least four civilians were killed and 12 others were wounded in a U.S. helicopter bombing in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

#2: The forensic medicine department in Mosul received four bodies from different parts of the city, including the body of a Kurdish civilian killed by U.S. forces in his house in the northern section of the city, a police source said on Thursday.
"The forensic medicine department in Mosul received the body of Kurdish civilian Saad Hussein Jankeer al-Koyani, who was killed by U.S. forces in his house in front of his family in al-Methaq neighborhood in northern Mosul," the media official from the Ninewa police department Brigadier Saeed Ahmed Abdullah told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). Meanwhile, the brigadier also said that the forensic medicine department also received the body of Yassin Mohasen Aayed, a policeman from the oil protection force, who was killed by gunmen in al-Jesr al-Khames in western Mosul. "Two unidentified bodies were also found in western Mosul. The bodies bore signs of gunshot wounds to the head," he added.
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#3: a car bomb detonated in the Bab Sinjar neighborhood in western Mosul, local police source said. The attack targeted a passing police patrol in the neighborhood, wounding two policemen and four civilians, the source added
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#4: At least two people were killed and 10 wounded by a car bomb in a crowded market in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

#5: At least two policemen were wounded by a car bomb near their patrol in Mosul, police said.
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Tal Afar:
#1: A suicide bomber wearing an explosive-belt blew himself up in a wedding party inside a house in the town of Tal Afar, 70 km west of Mosul," Staff Brigadier Ibrahim al-Jubouri, chief police of the town told Xinhua by telephone. The attack targeted the house of a brother of an Iraqi police officer in the town, killing four people and wounding five others, most of them in critical condition, al-Jubouri said.

Al Anbar Prv:
Fallujah:
#1: At least two citizens were killed and eight others injured when a suicide bomber blew up an explosive belt strapped to his body on Thursday, targeting a police recruitment center in southern Falluja, a police source said. "A suicide attacker blew himself up at 12:00 pm on Thursday amid a gathering of volunteers in front of a police recruitment center in al-Taameem neighborhood in southern Falluja," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq
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#2: Multiple suicide bomb attacked the house of a Sunni tribal leader during a gathering in a town near the city of Fallujah Wednesday, killing at least 21people and wounded some 50 others, local police and medical sources said. "Two suicide bombers wearing explosive belts blew themselves up at about 5:00 p.m. (1300 GMT) among a crowd of the al-Jumailat tribe in the house of Sheikh Meshhin al-Khalaf in the town of Garmah," a police source in the town told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Afterwards, two more suicide bombers sneaked among dozens of people gathered to help evacuating casualties and blew themselves up, the source said. Earlier, Khalaf called on a gathering in his house to urge his tribesmen join the Iraqi security forces to fight the al-Qaida militants in Iraq's western Anbar province, the source added.
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#3: A suicide bomber on a bicycle wounded a policeman at a checkpoint in Falluja, west of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan:
#1: U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with suspected Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan Thursday, killing 11 rebels. The U.S.-led troops called in airstrikes on the Taliban fighters after the joint U.S.-Afghan patrol was ambushed by the militants in Uruzgan province, the coalition said in a statement. There were no reports of U.S. or Afghan casualties in the clash

#2: Elsewhere, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol vehicle left five officers dead and another wounded in Khost province, said Wazir Pacha, a spokesman for the provincial police chief. The victims were part of a joint U.S-Afghan patrol, Pacha said. No U.S.-led coalition troops were injured in the morning blast.

#3: Also Thursday, a NATO soldier was killed and two others were wounded during an operation in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said in a statement.

It is with much sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of a British soldier from the 1st Battalion The Grenadier Guards near Gereshk in Helmand province, Afghanistan today, Thursday 12 July 2007. The Grenadier Guards soldier was working as part of the 1st Battalion Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment Battlegroup, who are undertaking operations alongside Afghan National Security Forces to improve security in the Helmand River valley. During an enemy contact, the soldier suffered a gunshot wound at approximately 0800 hours local time. He was rapidly evacuated by helicopter and despite the very best efforts of emergency medical staff he was pronounced dead on arrival at the field hospital. Two other soldiers were injured in another part of the same operation and they are now receiving medical treatment.
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