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


Thursday, November 14, 2013

War News for Thursday, November 14, 2013

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a roadside bombing in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, November 14th.


Afghan contractor with insurgent ties given contracts, access to U.S. facilities

US cancels purchase of Russian helicopters for Afghanistan


Reported security incidents
#1: Three Taliban militants were killed by police while planting mine on a road in western Afghan province of Farah late Wednesday night, a local official said Thursday. "Four Taliban rebels were busy planting mine on a road in Pustht Koh district when local police patrol identified the rebels and opened fire killing three on the spot," provincial government spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhawandoy told Xinhua.

#2: A suicide bomber, according to Ghazni police, targeted a police checkpoint early Thursday morning killing himself and injuring two policemen. The incident took place in Muqar district at around 05:00 a.m. local time, injuring two local policemen, according to a senior police officer, Assadullah Safi. Safi also noted that the attacker lost his life in the blast.

#3: In the second incident which took place in Kajaki district of Helmand province, two persons were killed as their motorbike ran over a roadside bomb organized by Taliban militants, spokesman for Helmand's provincial government Omar Zawak told Xinhua.

#4: Units of police have killed eight Taliban fighters across the country over the past 24 hours, a statement of Interior Ministry released here on Thursday said.

#5: Taliban militants have torched houses of at least 20 Afghan local police (ALP) officers and militants who have joined peace process in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, local officials said.

Posted by whisker at 3:33 AM

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