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, December 6, 2013

War News for friday, December 06, 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: A motorcycle bomb exploded Thursday near a police checkpost in a southwestern Pakistani town near the Afghan border, killing one civilian and wounding 13 others, police said. The bomb went off in the border town of Chaman in the troubled Balochistan province. Chaman is one of two major border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan, along with Torkham in the northwest, and is the main land route for NATO supplies crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

#2: Gunmen shot dead a Sunni Muslim leader on Friday in the latest sectarian attack to hit Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore. The drive-by shooting took place as Shamsur Rehman Muawiya, chief of the Sunni extremist organisation Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jammat (ASWJ) for Punjab province, traveled by car to the northern Harbans Pura neighborhood.

#3: At least six people were killed in southwest Pakistan when security forces exchanged fire with suspected militants during an operation to recover abductees, officials said on Friday. The exchange of fire took place in the restive Baluchistan province, which is rife with ethnic insurgency and sectarian violence.

#4: At least five members of the Afghan forces were killed following an attack by Taliban militants in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan. According to local authorities in Helmand province, at least two Taliban militants were also killed during the clashes which took place later Thursday night in Musa Qala district.

Posted by whisker at 5:09 AM

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