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, July 19, 2013

War News for Friday, July 19, 2013


Afghan customs fines hike cost of U.S. military pullout

Customs issues halts flow of US military equipments from Afghanistan


Reported security incidents
#1: A bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed five children and a woman after it went off as they were playing with it inside a Taliban commander's home, an official said Friday. The incident occurred on Thursday morning in the remote Mata Khan district, inside the house of an insurgent leader named Abdullah, said Mokhlis Afghan, a spokesman for the governor in Paktika province.

#2: A Slovak soldier who suffered serious injuries after being shot in the chest in a recent attack at the Kandahar military base in Afghanistan is to undergo further surgery, Slovak Armed Forces spokesperson Milan Vanga told the TASR newswire on Thursday, July 18. He revealed that the condition of the other seriously injured soldier, who was shot in the head, remains critical.

#3: Thirty-two militants have been killed in different Afghan provinces in the last 24 hours, said the country's Interior Ministry on Friday. "Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition troops conducted cleanup operations in Baghlan, Kunduz, Balkh, Logar, Helmand and Kandahar provinces over the past 24 hours. As a result 26 Taliban insurgents had been killed, five wounded and six Taliban were detained," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.

Posted by whisker at 4:44 AM

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