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


Friday, July 1, 2011

War News for Friday, July 01, 2011

The DoD is reporting the death of soldier at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany on Saturday, June 25th. He was wounded from small arms fire in Kherwar, Logar Province, Afghanistan on Wednesday, June 22nd.


Attacks on U.S. in Iraq increase

Somalia becomes the sixth country attacked by US drone planes

US refuses to vacate Shamsi Air Base


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: An Iraqi officer and a policeman have been injured when a group of gunmen opened fire on them by pistols, fixed with silencers, in eastern Baghdad on Thursday, a security source reported. “A group of armed men opened fire by pistols, fixed with silencers, on an officer with a major-rank and a policeman in east Baghdad’s Ur district on Thursday, wounding both men and escaping away,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kirkuk:
#1: Gunmen in a speeding car shot and wounded an off-duty policeman near his house southwest of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Gunmen in a speeding car shot dead a North Oil Company employee and wounded a civilian in southern Kirkuk on Wednesday, police said.


Mosul:
#1: Two cops and one Kurdish security member (Asayish) were killed by gunfire directed against them by armed men wearing military attire north of Mosul city, police security sources said. The source added that the armed men erected a phony checkpoint to inspect a number of vehicles. They took the three under the pretext of investigation, to be found later shot in the head in a nearby area.


Anbar Prv:
#1: Gunmen in a speeding car shot dead a government-backed Sunni Sahwa militia member in Khaldiya, 83 km (50 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Thirteen Afghan civilians, including children, were killed and 33 wounded when their passenger bus was hit by a roadside bomb late yesterday in western Afghanistan. The bomb in Khash Rod district of western Nimroz province had been planted by the Taliban, according to provincial police chief Abdul Jabar Purdeli.

#2: At least two people were killed and 14 others injured in a blast late Thursday night at a market place in Peshawar in northwest Pakistan, reported local Urdu TV channel ARY. According to the local media reports, the blast took place at about 9:30 p.m. local time inside a vehicle at the Shoba market in downtown Peshawar.


DoD: Spc. Nicholas P. Bernier

Posted by whisker at 3:47 AM

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