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


Sunday, June 23, 2013

News of the Day for Sunday, June 23, 2013

One Australian special forces soldier killed, 2 injured, in a gunfight in southern Afghanistan, apparently in Uruzgan. No further information as of now.

Seven Afghan National Police are killed in a roadside bombing in Uruzgan.

Interior Ministry claims 38 Taliban killed in various operations around the country. (As usual, the apparent absence of any casualties on the government side, and lack of any corroboration, make these claims dubious, at least as far as I'm concerned. -- C)

Afghan soldiers are training to be bomb disposal experts, but hundreds more must be trained in a hurry before ISAF forces depart.
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Twenty one kilograms of opium and more than a kilogram of heroin are seized  from a boat that entered Uzbekistan from Afghanistan via the Amu Darya. Much of Aghanistan's heroin production ultimately reaches Russia through central Asia.

It is still doubtful whether peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar will ever begin, as the dispute over the name of the Taliban office there continues to be an obstacle. (It's amazing how powerful these symbolic issues are. The Taliban have designated the office an embassy of their shadow government, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Karzai government and the U.S., of course, do not recognize the existence of any such entity. Qatar says they only had permission to call the facility the "Afghan Taliban Political Office in Doha." Those old enough to remember Vietnam will recall that peace talks were delayed for months over the issue of the shape of the table.) Further discussion of the issue and the prospects for peace talks is here.

 Two would-be bombers are killed as they attempt to plant a roadside bomb in Kandahar province.








Posted by Cervantes at 1:07 PM

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