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


Saturday, November 5, 2016

Update for Saturday, November 5, 2016

NATO confirms that civilian casualties occurred as a result of air strike in Kunduz in support of an operation in which two U.S. troops were killed. Says some of the dead were Taliban family members.

DoD identifies soldiers killed in action Nov. 3 as Capt. Andrew D. Byers, 30, of Rolesville, North Carolina, and Sgt. 1st Class Ryan A. Gloyer, 34, of Greenville, Pennsylvania, assigned to
Company B, 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Carson, Colorado.  

Separate sticky bomb attacks in Kabul and Nangarhar  injure four police officials from Kapisa (in Kabul) and kill a driver and injure a district governor (Nangarhar).

 Rocket fire kills one civilian, injures three in Assadabad, Kunar.

 IS militants abduct 6 civilians in Ghor, days after massacring 31.

 U.S. says it killed Taliban leader Faruq al-Qhatani in an airstrike in October in Kunar.

Roadside bomb kills 11 wedding guests in Faryab.

Ben Norton in Salon discusses Afghanistan as the forgotten war.

In Iraq,  seventeen civilians fleeing Hawija are killed in an explosion. Other accounts give higher casualty totals.

 Iraqi forces advancing from the south take Hammal al-Alil, said to be the last IS stronghold south of Mosul, some 30 kilometers from the city.

Satellite images show daunting defensive works in Mosul.


Posted by Cervantes at 6:36 AM

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