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, May 12, 2010

War News for Wednesday, May 12, 2010

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier in an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, May 12th. News reports this as a Romanian soldier who died from an anti-personnel mine.


Military considers delaying pullout of troops in Iraq:

Debt crisis to drive down oil demand: IEA

Iraqi Deal to End De-Baathification:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Three people were killed and 22 wounded when a bomb exploded at a Baghdad grocery store on Wednesday, shortly after a corpse was dumped outside, an Iraqi interior ministry official said reported by A Pakistan News. The incident occurred in Shula, a northwestern district of the capital, at around 7 am (0400 GMT). “The body was thrown in front of the shop and when people gathered round afterwards there was an explosion, causing the casualties,” said the official, who pointed out the body had not been booby-trapped with explosives.

#2: Five policemen were killed and 14 others wounded after two roadside bombs went off in Baghdad, Iraq' s Interior Ministry said Tuesday. The two blasts exploded in quick succession in the Dora district in southern Baghdad on Tuesday evening. When police rushed to the scene of the first blast, the other roadside bomb was detonated.


Mosul:
#1: A policeman was wounded on Tuesday in an improvised explosive device explosion in western Mosul, a security source said. “The bomb exploded on Tuesday afternoon (May 11) targeting a police vehicle patrol in the fifth tunnel in western Mosul, injuring a policeman,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: One civilian was killed on Tuesday by gunmen in western Mosul, according to a police source. “Unknown gunmen killed a taxi driver in front of his house in al-Islah al-Zeraie neighborhood in western Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The man was killed four days after his wife’s murder by gunmen,” he added.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Police forces defused two bombs on Tuesday in central Ramadi, a police source said. “A force managed on Tuesday (May 11) to defuse two bombs found near the Anbar agriculture department in central Ramadi, without damage,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: One civilian was wounded when gunmen opened fire on Wednesday in central Falluja city. “Police forces cordoned the area and arrested two of the gunmen,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that interrogation is underway with the two arrested gunmen.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Pakistani Taliban shot and killed two men Wednesday whom they accused of spying for the United States. The slain men were from Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region which is effectively under militant control. The bodies were dumped in an open area in the town. Local resident Ahsan Ullah said notes attached to the bodies warned others to learn from the fate of the so-called American spies.

#2: a bomb ripped through a NATO oil tanker near the Afghan border and killed a passer-by, officials and residents said. Also Wednesday, a bomb ripped through an oil tanker carrying supplies for NATO forces based in Afghanistan, killing a passer-by, Pakistani border guard Fazal Bari said. The attack took place in Chaman, the main border town in impoverished southwestern Baluchistan province, Bari said. The tanker caught fire after the blast and police were trying checking whether anyone aboard the tanker was hurt.

Two people were killed in Pakistan on Wednesday when a bomb exploded in a tanker carrying fuel for Nato troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, a military spokesman said. The device went off as the Nato supply convoy arrived at a customs checkpost in the southwestern border town of Chaman which faces Spin Boldak in Afghanistan's violence-plagued south, Colonel Asad Shahzada told AFP. “The bomb was planted in the oil tanker,” he said. A Pakistani trader heading towards Afghanistan was burnt alive while a pedestrian died of burns in hospital. An AFP reporter at the Chaman post said the blast triggered a fire destroying thousands of litres of fuel.

#3: In the northwestern city of Peshawar, two young girls were killed and two other others injured after someone hurled a hand grenade into a home in a congested residential area, police official Razi Khan said. It was not clear whether militant groups were behind the attack and authorities were investigating.

#4: Unknown armed men gunned downed an official of Kandahar jail in south Afghanistan on Wednesday, spokesman for provincial administration Zalmai Ayubi said. "Two unknown armed men riding a motorbike opened fire on Nabi Gul Abid the secretary of the director of Kandahar prison and killed him on the spot this morning," Ayubi told Xinhua. The incident occurred in Kandahar city the capital of Kandahar province when Abid was on way to office, he further said, adding the attackers made their good escape.

#5: In the previous attack early this morning a roadside bomb struck a police van in Kandahar city wounding four persons including a policeman.

#6: An explosive device planted by militants went off in Khost city the capital of the same name Khost province in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday morning injuring six civilians, an official said. "An explosive device was planted and detonated in an ice cream shop in Sargardan square in Khost city this morning at around 08: 30 a.m. local time injuring six people all of them civilians," Zahidullah the deputy to provincial health department told Xinhua.

#7: Meanwhile, Afghan Interior Ministry in a statement released in capital city Kabul said that two other explosions were also happened in Khost on the same day but no casualties have been reported.

#8: Taliban militants Tuesday night raided a guest house run by the government in the relatively peaceful Badakhshan province in northeast Afghanistan, wounding a policeman and damaging the building of a guesthouse, Shams-ul-Rahman Shams, the deputy to provincial governor, said Wednesday. "A group of militants launched a rocket attack at the guesthouse belonging to the government in Kasham district late Tuesday night. As a result a police constable was wounded," Shams told Xinhua. The second floor of the building was damaged in the attack, he said.


News: Sgt. Maj. Valerica Leu

1 comments:

Cervantes said...

From Kandahar, a View of a ‘Counterproductive Counterinsurgency’

"The counterinsurgency methodology which is currently being employed in Afghanistan is not going to lead coalition forces to victory in this war.

The idea of “counterinsurgency” appears to be a viable way for success on paper. Military units, along with NGO’s [non-governmental organizations], the Department of State, GIRoA [the Afghanistan government], and other government agencies work together to emplace the clear, hold, build strategy in key areas of the battlefield. Like communism, however, counterinsurgency methods are not proving to be effective in practice."