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, January 24, 2014

War News for Friday, January 24, 2014


Three suspected militants killed in U.S. drone strike in Yemen

7 soldiers injured in S. Philippine land mine blast


Reported security incidents
#1: Mohammad Ismail Khan, a running mate of warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, survives attempted assassination in Herat City. A suicide bomber has attempted to assassinate a vice presidential candidate in western Afghanistan. Ismail Khan was in a car leaving a mosque after Friday prayers in the heart of Herat City when the bomber, said to be in his seventies, detonated his explosives. Local police and the ministry of interior report no casualties or injuries other than the bomber himself.

#2: "Six people including two children were killed and seven injured when an explosives-laden car, parked at a motor workshop on the outskirts of Peshawar, blew up," senior police official Najeeb Ur Rehman told AFP. "Around 25 to 30 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the blast", he added.

#3: At least three persons including two Frontier Corps (FC) personnel and a local journalist were injured when a roadside remote-controlled bomb exploded in Khyber Agency on Friday. According to the FC sources, militants had planted an improvised explosive device (IED) along the road that exploded near a college in Landi Kotal area, injuring two FC troops and a local journalist.

#4: According to reports, unknown gunmen have assassinated the local correspondent for New York Times Noor Ahmad Noori in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan. The family members of Noori have said that his dead body was found in Lashkargah city after he went missing around 10 am local time.

Posted by whisker at 4:13 AM

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