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, May 6, 2013

War News for Monday, May 06, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: Cross-border clashes flared on Monday between Afghan and Pakistani security forces for a second time in five days as Kabul and Islamabad engaged in a war of words over the porous frontier, officials said.

#2: Pakistani troops overran two militant hideouts and killed 16 insurgents after heavy overnight fighting at a flashpoint near the Afghan border in which two soldiers also died, the military said on Sunday. The fighting took place in the wake of a fresh military push in the Tirah Valley in the Khyber district, where the military has been targeting Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam militia who threaten the nearby northwestern city of Peshawar.

#3: Separately, a roadside bomb targeting a military convoy Sunday killed two Pakistani soldiers and wounded three more in another tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said. The bomb was planted on the road near Razmak, about 45 kilometres south of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, a notorious hub of Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants, local security officials said.


DoD: Capt. Mark T. Voss

DoD: Capt. Victoria A. Pinckney

DoD: Tech Sgt. Herman Mackey III

Posted by whisker at 4:16 AM

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