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


Thursday, August 4, 2011

War News for Thursday, August 04, 2011

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, July 3rd.

NATO is reporting the death of another ISAF soldier from a non-combat related injury in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, July 3rd.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from small arms fire/gunshot wounds from an apparent ANA soldier in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, July 4th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, July 4th.


Reported security incidents

Mosul:
#1: Two Iraqi soldiers have been killed in an armed attack on their checkpoint east of Mosul, the center of northern Iraq’s Ninewa Province, a security source reported on Wednesday. “A group of unknown armed men have attacked an Iraqi Army checkpoint in east Mosul’s Dargazaliya district on Wednesday, killing two soldiers and escaping to an unknown destination,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Two bombs targeting police exploded in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Wednesday, killing nine people and wounding 13, Iraqi officials said. The bombs exploded in central Ramadi, with the second one going off just steps away from the first after police and other people gathered on the scene. Jasim al-Halbusi, head of the Anbar provincial council, said the blasts went off about 6 p.m. He said one of the dead was a policeman and three of the injured were police officers. The deputy governor of Anbar province, Hikmat Jasim Zaidan, said nine people were killed. "A bomb exploded first and when the police and people gathered, a sticky bomb attached to a tractor exploded near the scene," he said. "The enemies of Iraq, al-Qaeda and others armed groups, are behind these explosions."



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: An Afghan intelligence agent was killed in a Taliban bomb attack in the country's north on Thursday. Payenda Mohammad died when the blast destroyed his car near his home, provincial spokesman Mahboobullah Sayedi told AFP news agency, adding that three girls were also injured in the attack. Mohammad was a junior official in the Kunduz branch of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS).

#2: A bomb hidden among garbage killed two Afghan civilians in the Kulah Sabz area of central Ghazni province, said Mohammad Ismail Abrahimzai, the head of Ghazni's central hospital.


DoD: Staff Sgt. Patrick R. Dolphin

DoD: Sgt. Dennis E. Kancler

DoD: Sgt. Christopher M. Wrinkle

DoD: Staff Sgt. Kirk A. Owen

Posted by whisker at 3:38 AM

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