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


Monday, November 24, 2008

War News for Monday, November 24, 2008

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF Marine from an explosion in the Kajaki area of Helmand province, Afghanistan on Monday, November 24th. No other details were released. Here's the ISAF statement.


Nov. 21 Airpower Summary:

Turkish oil pipeline repaired after 3-day fire:

Rebels claim killing 43 Sri Lankan soldiers:

Two PKK terrorists killed in eastern Turkey:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: In the first attack, a bomb attached to a bus used by the Trade Ministry to ferry employees to work exploded shortly before 8 a.m. in eastern Baghdad, police and hospital officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Thirteen ministry employees were killed and three wounded, according to an official with the state-owned Iraqi shopping centers company who also spoke on condition of anonymity. The company is part of the Trade Ministry. The rush-hour attack happened in a Shiite area and the injured were taken to Kindi hospital in Baghdad. The U.S. military said 14 people were killed and four were injured in the 7:20 a.m. blast on the minibus. It said American soldiers assisted Iraqi police in securing the area and treating casualties.

#2: About 45 minutes later, a female suicide bomber blew herself up as she stood in line to be searched at a checkpoint near the Green Zone in central Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 13, according to an Interior Ministry official who declined to give his name. The U.S. military said the bombing near the Green Zone occurred between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. and killed two Iraqi army members and three civilians. One civilian was injured, it said.

An intelligence agency spokesperson on Monday said that the suicide bombing that rocked Baghdad’s heavily-fortified green zone earlier today targeted the agency’s building. “Two women working for the intelligence agency were among the dead,” the spokesperson told Aswat al-Iraq.

#3: In a third attack, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol around 10:30 a.m. near Technology University in eastern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding four other people, an Iraqi police officer and an official at Ibin al-Nafis hospital said on condition of anonymity. Two police officers were among the injured.

#4: Security forces have managed to defuse a car bomb in downtown Baghdad’s al-Saadoun Street, according to eye witnesses. “Iraqi security forces sealed off the area and blocked the road for more than two hours to avoid casualties,” an eyewitness told Aswat al-Iraq.

#5: A mortar hit Meda’in town ( south of Baghdad). Six people were wounded.


Diyala Prv:
Baquba:
#1: In Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, a policeman was killed when a roadside bomb blew up near his car, police said.

Muqdadiyah:
#1: Gunmen killed three brothers in Thiaba village of Muqdadiyah town (east of Baquba) around 11 a m.


Dalouiya:
#1: A local-made bomb went off targeting a civilian car in al-Sidieq village in Dalouiya, east of Tikrit, injuring the driver,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.

#2: “A five-men armed group kidnapped a farmer in Bishkan village in eastern Dalouiya,” he added.“His family said that he was on his way to the market to sell his product, when the gunmen stopped him and took him to unknown place,”


Kirkuk:
#1: A lawyer was killed by unknown gunmen while he was heading to work in southwestern Kirkuk city, a local police chief said on Monday.


Mosul:
#1: A policeman was killed in an attack by unidentified gunmen on his patrol in western Mosul city, a security source in Ninewa province said on Monday. “Unknown gunmen opened fire last night at a police patrol in the area of Qabr el-Bint, western Mosul, leaving one policeman killed,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.

#2: An Iraqi serviceman on Monday was wounded by random fire in southeastern Mosul city, a local security source said. “The soldier was among his fellow patrolmen in al-Intisar neighborhood when the incident took place,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq. The soldier suffered a minor injury, the source added, providing no further details.

#3: A sniper killed a policeman in Borsa neighborhood in Mosul city.

#4: Gunmen opened fire on policemen in Intisar neighborhood in Mosul city. One policeman was injured.



Afghanistan:
#1: The US military claimed Monday to have killed seven Taliban militants in a clash in the southern province of Ghazni, while the Afghan defence ministry said their troops arrested two militants who were trying to plant a roadside bomb on a road in the eastern region. The militants were killed in Qarabagh district of the province on Sunday in a coalition forces operation that targeted a Taliban commander responsible for coordinating and directing roadside and suicide attacks in the province, the military said in a statement.

#2: A remote-control bomb planted under a small bridge in north Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, went off, killing and injuring at least two people early Monday morning, spokesman of Interior Ministry Zamarai Bashari said. It occurred at around 8 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) when the bomb under the bridge suddenly went off in Kareez Mir area, northern Kabul, killing and wounded two people, Bashari told Xinhua.

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