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, March 15, 2013

War News for Friday, March 15, 2013

The DoD is reporting the death of a sailor previously unreported by the military. Chief Petty Officer Christian Michael Pike died from combat related injuries in Landstuhl Medical Hospital, Lanstuhl Germany on Sunday, March 10th. He was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
 
The DoD is reporting another new death of a soldier previously unreported by the military. Spc. David T. Proctor died from non-combat related injuries at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md on Wednesday, March 13th. He was injured somewhere in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on Sunday, March 3rd. News reports that a steel door fell on him.
 

Reported security incidents
#1: Afghanistan's intelligence agency says it has defused a massive truck bomb that could have destroyed a whole area of the capital. The National Directorate of Security said Friday the eight tons of explosives were found early in the week in eastern Kabul in a night raid. A resulting firefight killed five suspected plotters. Two other people were arrested.

#2: Afghan security forces launched a cleanup operation in Badakhshan province 315 km northeast of Kabul on Thursday to evict Taliban militants from their hideouts, a spokesman said Friday. "During the operation which covered Wardoj and Jerm districts so far one Taliban rebel has been killed and 10 others have been arrested," spokesman for provincial administration Abdul Marouf Rasikh said. He also said that the operation will continue till the anti- government militants are killed or surrender.

#3: Twenty-four more persons were killed in the ongoing clashes between the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and pro-government armed organisation Ansarul Islam (AI) as around 300 troops entered the area on Thursday to help the latter in the Maidan area of Tirah Valley, Khyber Agency, tribal and official sources said. The sources said clashes between the two rivals continued on the second consecutive day on Thursday in Tarkikhel of Qambarkhel in Maidan locality of the valley in which small and heavy weapons were used.

Posted by whisker at 4:57 AM

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