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


Saturday, November 10, 2012

War News for Saturday, November 10, 2012

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, November 9th.


Reported security incidents
#1: A bomb planted on a bicycle exploded and inflicted casualties in Khost city, the capital of Khost province 150 km southeast of Kabul on Saturday, deputy to provincial police chief Mohammad Yaqub said. “The bomb planted on a bicycle was detonated by remote control at around 02:30 p.m. local time and inflicted casualties,” Yaqub told Xinhua. The blast happened while police were on patrol in the area, he said, without giving the number of casualties or their identity. Meanwhile, doctor Abdul Majid, head of a hospital in Khost city confirmed that a dead body and five injured people have been taken to the hospital and all are civilians.

#2: Units of Afghan police during series of operations across the country have killed 15 Taliban fighters over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Saturday said. "In the operations conducted in Nangarhar, Sar-e-Pul, Jowzjan, Kandahar, Helmand, Khost, Zabul, Logar and Herat provinces over the past 24 hours, 15 Taliban rebels were killed," the statement said.







Posted by whisker at 4:51 AM

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