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, April 19, 2013

War News for Friday, April 19, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: Taliban insurgents killed 13 local policemen Friday in an attack on their checkpoint in southeast Afghanistan, officials said. The policemen were sleeping when their post in the Andar district of Ghazni province came under fire, said district governor Mohammad Qasim Desiwal.

#2: At least two people were injured in rocket attack at a political gathering in NA-41 constituency of South Waziristan’s Wana area on Friday. A political rally of Nasir Ahmed was underway in Wana when a rocket landed from an unknown direction injuring two persons. Further details were not available till the filing of this report.

#3: In the latest string of violence, a Taliban suicide bomber stroke security forces in the country's southern province of Helmand, injuring seven people. "A militant detonated an explosive-laden car along a road in Sanging district when Afghan police and foreign soldiers were patrolling the area. The blast killed the attacker and injured seven others," the district administrative chief, Daud Noorzai, told Xinhua. The injured included five Afghan policemen and two civilians, the official said adding, "Their wounds were not life-threatening. "

#4: An Afghan policeman and two militants were killed overnight when Taliban militants launched an attack in the country's northern province of Badakhshan, an official said on Friday. "Several armed militants raided Afghan Border Police checkpoints in Teergran area in Wardoj district at midnight. A border cop and two militants were killed in the gunfight," Dawlat Mohammad, the administrative chief of Wardoj, told Xinhua. He said an unknown number of militants were also wounded in the fighting lasting for a while.

Posted by whisker at 4:35 AM

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