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


Tuesday, June 25, 2013

War News for Tuesday, June 25, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: An Italian C130 military aircraft drew light fire in Afghanistan Sunday morning as it made a tactical flight in the province of Farah. There were no injuries, and the airplane proceeded regularly with its mission to the Herat military airport. An investigation is underway into damage made to the airplane.

#2: The Taliban launched a coordinated attack on the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul early on Tuesday. The attack began shortly after 6:30 a.m., when a group of gunmen emerged from a small white minibus not far from the Salam Khana Gate outside the heavily fortified palace and opened fire on presidential guards. These attacks included an assault by militants armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and suicide vests on the military side of Kabul International Airport
 
#3: Afghan officials say a brazen Taliban assault on the presidential palace in Kabul has left three guards dead. The militant group had earlier said that all eight attackers died in the early Tuesday attack on one of the most secure parts of the Afghan capital. Militants with false papers and military-style uniforms bluffed their way through two checkpoints on their way to the palace before jumping out of their explosives-packed vehicle and opening fire on security personnel. Another carload of Taliban fighters got stuck between two checkpoints and detonated their own car bomb.

#4: Eight Afghan women and two children were killed and three other civilians were wounded Tuesday morning when a vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in the southern province of Kandahar, a source said.


US/DoD: Spc. Javier Sanchez Jr.

Posted by whisker at 4:33 AM

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