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, January 30, 2012

War News for Monday, January 30, 2011

U.S. Drones Patrolling Its Skies Provoke Outrage in Iraq

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, January 30, Jan. 29th.


Reported security incidents
#1: Pakistani army forces have killed at least eight militants during an air strike in the northwestern Kurram tribal region, Press TV reports. Gunship helicopters belonging to Pakistan's army bombarded the militant's hideouts in the Murghan and Kandlor area of central Kurram tribal region near the Afghanistan border on Sunday, killing the eight militants and wounding ten others.

#2: The Taliban have kidnapped a member of Afghanistan's peace council during a bid to promote talks in the volatile east, underscoring the difficulty negotiators face in winning support for nascent negotiations from the Taliban frontline. Maulavi Shafihullah Shafih, a low-level member of the High Peace Council set up by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to liaise with the Taliban, disappeared on Friday in the Asmar district of the eastern province of Kunar, authorities said on Sunday. The attack wounded four people, including Masoom Stanekzai, head of the council's secretariat.

#3: An Afghan-led security force supported by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), killed a leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in Taloqan district, Takhar province, on Sunday, the coalition said in a statement.

#4: Four armed insurgents were killed and one was wounded during security operations in several provinces, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.


MoD: Lance Corporal Gajbahadur Gurung

Posted by whisker at 3:52 AM

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