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, April 8, 2013

War News for Monday, April 08, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: At least 11 children have reportedly been killed in a NATO airstrike in Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan. The children were killed during a joint Afghan-NATO operation against Taliban fighters in the Shigal district of restive Kunar province bordering Pakistan late on Saturday, according to Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president. There were conflicting figures of the death toll, but Karzai's office later said 11 people were killed - all of them children - and six women were wounded.

#2: A roadside bomb in Afghanistan exploded under a bus on Monday, killing nine people and wounding at least 22 in an attack by suspected Taliban militants, officials said. "Today at around 8:00 am an IED (improvised explosive device) hit a bus," Attaullah Khogyani, the governor's spokesman in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, told AFP.

#3: Four persons were wounded when a blast occurred near NADRA office in Kharan Monday, FP News desk reported. According to initial reports, miscreants attacked the NADRA building in Kharan with explosives and fled from the site. As a result of explosion, four persons were injured who have been shifted to hospital for treatment, police told. Earlier, District Election Commission’s office was also attacked in which one person was injured. Police retaliated and opened fire after which the militants escaped from the scene.

#4: A total of 16 militants have been killed in separate operations across Afghanistan, authorities said Monday. "Afghan National Police (ALP) supported by the army and the NATO-led coalition forces launched several cleanup operations in Kunar, Nangarhar, Kapisa, Jawzjan, Kandahar, Zabul, Wardak, Ghazni, Paktya and Helmand provinces over the last 24 hours. As a result 12 armed Taliban insurgents were killed and one armed insurgent was wounded," the country's Interior Ministry said in a statement.

#5: According to reports militants have fired at least two rockets on a gathering attended by Afghan president Hamid Karzai in western Farah province of Afghanistan.

Posted by whisker at 4:07 AM

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