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 16, 2009

War News for Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The AP is reporting the deaths of three U.S. service members in a roadside bombing in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, September 15th.


Chechnya suicide bombing injures 6 police:

Afghan-Taliban using high-tech undetectable bombs to attack NATO forces:

Chomsky: What America's 'Crisis' Means to the Rest of the World:

MILITARY: Pendleton Special Operations troops heading to Afghanistan:

Afghan rift bared as US military chief challenges Obama:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Shortly after Biden arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday on his third visit to Iraq this year, the fortified Green Zone where the sprawling US embassy is based came under attack. The US military said that Iraqi and American forces had arrested three people on suspicion of firing three 107mm rockets in what it described as “an indirect fire attack against US and Iraqi forces.” An AFP journalist on the scene at the time said two blasts were heard about 100 metres (yards) from the US Embassy. An Iraqi security official, who said the attack comprised four mortar shells being fired into the Green Zone, told AFP that two Iraqis were killed and five wounded in the bombardment.

U.S. and Iraqi forces detained three Iraqis after rocket attacks on Baghdad's fortified Green Zone district during a trip by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, but later released them.

#2: Unknown gunmen on Wednesday killed an anesthetist while he was leaving his clinic near the Iraqi capital Baghdad, according to a security source. “Unknown gunmen shot down Ammar Hussein, an anesthetist working at Abu Ghraib Hospital (20 km west of Baghdad), while he was leaving his clinic at the medical compound in downtown Abu Ghraib district,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kut:
#1: Two Katyusha rockets were launched from a region in eastern Kut towards Delta base, a police source said. “The rockets were fired from Anwar al-Sadr region in eastern Kut, towards the U.S. Delta base in western Kut,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “U.S. aircrafts hovered over the region after the attack,” he added, without giving more details.


Central Iraq:
#1: An Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft crashed in central Iraq at approximately 12:45 p.m. Baghdad time on Sept.14. The crash was not due to hostile fire. The crash site has been secured and there were no reports of civilian injuries or damage to civilian property.


Kirkuk:
#1: Two policemen and a civilian were injured by a roadside bomb in downtown Kirkuk on Tuesday morning.

#2: A civilian was stabbed to death by unknown attackers in Kirkuk city on Tuesday morning.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen killed a former policeman in central Mosul city, a security source from Ninewa province said on Wednesday. “The incident took place at the crowded Al-Arbiaa Market neighborhood in central Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: One woman was killed and five civilians were wounded in a bomb explosion in Falluja, a police source said on Wednesday. “An improvised explosive device went off Tuesday night (Sept. 15) near the house of a policeman near al-Sedeeq mosque, central Falluja, killing a woman and injuring five,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: U.S. forces opened fire on a mentally handicapped person on Wednesday afternoon after throwing his shoe at a U.S. patrol in central Falluja, eyewitnesses said. “A mentally disabled person threw his shoe on a U.S. vehicle patrol near Hajji Hussein restaurant in central Falluja, forcing U.S. soldiers to shoot and wounding him,” the witnesses told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents in west Afghanistan claimed the lives of 20 rebels, a private newspaper reported Wednesday. "Twenty militants were killed during clash with security forces Tuesday in Band-e-Sabzak area between Herat and Badghis provinces in western Afghanistan," daily Rah-e-Nejat writes. Quoting Herat police chief Asmatullah Alizai, the newspaper added that five more insurgents got wounded in the gun battle lasted for hours.

#2: Nine Taliban insurgents have been killed as they came in contact with police force in the Kunduz province north of Afghanistan, provincial police chief Abdul Razaq Qaqubi said Wednesday. "The clash took place Tuesday in Imam Sahib district in the wake of Taliban attack on a police checkpoint during which nine insurgents were killed," Yaqubi told Xinhua. Two policemen and one insurgents were injured in the firefight lasted for a while.

#3: A roadside bomb damaged military vehicle of German troops in Takhar province, northeast Afghanistan, an official with the German troops in the neighboring Kunduz province Nasir Alkozai said Wednesday. "The incident occurred late Tuesday evening outside provincial capital Taliqan next to an airstrip, as a result a military armored personal carrier was damaged," Alkozai told Xinhua. Quoting a German brigadier Shcrghinj with Germany's Provincial Reconstructing Team (PRT) in Kunduz province, Alkozai added that there were no casualties on the troops.



MoD: Kingsman Jason Dunn-Bridgeman

DoD: Staff Sgt. Bryan D. Berky

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