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, September 26, 2007

War News for Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Baghdad:
#1: A Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was killed during a small-arms fire attack while conducting combat operations in an eastern section of the Iraqi capital Sept. 25.

#2: The Iraqi army killed seven insurgents and arrested 47 during the last 24 hours in different parts of Iraq, the Defence Ministry said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: In other developments in Diyala province, 57 kilometres north of Baghdad, five Iraqis belonging to the same family were killed overnight in hours after they were reported kidnapped.

#2: in Diyala province, an Iraqi was killed and four others from one family were wounded after gunmen had planted explosive charges in a house near theirs.

#3: In northern Diyala, a hospital received the dead bodies of three Iraqis, including a 3-year-old child, a medical source said.


Latifiya:
#1: Police said they found the body of a man shot in the head in the town of Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad.


Iskandariya:
#1: Gunmen shot dead two men in separate incidents on Tuesday in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Hilla:
#1: Ten civilians were killed in a US military raid on Hillah city. Iraqi police sources said US helicopters raided Hillah city, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, in Babel province, killing five women and four children and damaging a house.

#2: The same sources said US troops stormed a Sunni mosque also in Hillah, killing its imam, Sheikh Hosni al-Janabi, but without providing a reason for the attack.


Basra:
#1: A captain from Basra police was shot down by a sniper in the center of the city, a local official security source said on Wednesday.


Tikrit:
#1: In a twin blast in Tikrit city, about 170 kilometres north-west of Baghdad, at least seven Iraqis were killed and five wounded, including some policemen, witnesses said. Two car bombs went off consecutively targeting Iraqi cars queuing outside a gas station and another in a car park downtown in Sharqat district, the witnesses added.


Hawija:
#1: Three civilians were wounded when a grenade was thrown at an Iraqi army patrol in the town of Hawija, 70 km (40 miles) southwest of Baghdad, police said


Mosul:
#1: Two car bombs at army checkpoints in the east of Mosul killed one person and wounded two. Police said they killed another would-be suicide bomber and defused his explosives.

#2: A suicide truck bomber targeting a court under construction killed three workers and wounded 47 others in Mosul, 390 kilometres (240 miles) north of Baghdad, Nineveh police chief, Major-General Wathiq al-Hamadani said.


Qadaa Sinjar:
#1: In a village near Qadaa Sinjar in the Nineveh province, around 250 kilometres north-west of Baghdad, meanwhile, 10 civilians were reported killed and nine wounded in a car bomb explosion. Four of those wounded were in a critical condition, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported, citing hospital sources.


Al Anbar Prv:
Khalidiya:
#1: A policeman was killed and another was injured when an explosive charge went off targeting their vehicle patrol in northern Khalidiya, a police source said.

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