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


Wednesday, January 2, 2008

War News for Wednesday, January 02, 2008

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a U.S. Soldier a non-combat related injury in the vicinity of Qayyarah Airfield West (30 K south of Mosul) on Monday, December 31st.

The DPA is reporting the death of a coalition soldier in a roadside bombing in the province of Khost, Afghanistan on Wednesday, January 2nd. Two other soldiers were wounded and their Afghan interpreter was killed in the attack. No other details were released. We assume the death to be an American.


Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: In the same neighborhood, eastern Zayouna neighborhood, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded six people Wednesday - three police and three civilians, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information.

#2: update--Relatives wept as the remains of victims from a suicide bombing at a funeral were placed into coffins Wednesday, while police increased the attack's death toll by four to 36 killed in Baghdad's deadliest attack since August.

#3: Police found three anonymous bodies in Baghdad today in the following neighborhoods (1 body in Sadr city, 1 body in Saidiyah and 1 body in Bayaa neighborhood.


Diyala Prv:
Baquba:
#1: A suicide bombing Wednesday in the city of Baqouba killed seven people and wounded 22, police said. In Wednesday's attack, the bomber detonated his explosives near a hospital in the center of the city. The dead included a policeman and two members of a U.S.-backed armed volunteer group, the Brigades of 1920s Revolution, a police officer said.

#2: A roadside bomb detonated, late last night, in Abo Sida district, near Baaquba, killing a civilian," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

#3: the same source reported the injury of an Iraqi soldier when "four mortars landed on Abo Sida district Tuesday evening.


Kut:
#1: Gunmen attacked a house and killed two brothers -- a soldier and a policeman -- overnight in a town near the city of Kut, 110 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said.


Basra:
#1: Three mortar rounds landed in the British base at Basra airport. No further details are currently available,” a Basra security said.

#2: Gunmen opened fire randomly targeting civilians in Al Abla area north Basra city early morning today. Two civilians were injured in the incident.


Mosul:
#1: U.S. forces said they had accidentally killed a woman when they fired a missile from a helicopter at a group planting a bomb on Tuesday evening in the northern city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. The missile missed its target and struck a nearby building, the U.S. military said.

#2: The body of an Iraqi soldier was found on Tuesday in Mosul a day after he was kidnapped, police said.

#3: The bodies of two men were found shot near Mosul on Tuesday, police said.

#4: An improvised explosive device went off on Wednesday near a patrol vehicle belonging to Ninewa police's 5th squad in Mosul's eastern neighborhood of al-Baath, wounding a policeman," the source, who preferred to remain unnamed, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

#5: Two other police personnel were injured when unknown gunmen opened fire on their patrol car in al-Nour neighborhood, eastern Mosul," the source added.

#6: A U.S. Soldier died as a result of a non-combat related injury in the vicinity of Qayyarah Airfield West Dec. 31.



Afghanistan:
#1: Five Taliban rebels were killed in an explosion after the vehicle that they were fitting with a car bomb exploded on Wednesday in Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province, Sayed Agha Saqib, the provincial police chief, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

#2: In the same province, two policemen were killed and three others were wounded when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb blast in Spin Boldak district, near the Pakistani border, he said.

#3: In a similar attack in the south-eastern province of Khost, two security guards working at a US military base were killed on Tuesday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb blast in Yaqoubi district, Wazir Badshah, a spokesman for the provincial police chief said.

#4: Also in Khost province on Tuesday, two Taliban rebels, who were placing a mine on a road in Sabari district, were killed when their mine exploded prematurely, a Defence Ministry statement said, adding that in a similar incident in southern Kandahar province two other militants were killed.

#5: The combined Afghan and foreign forces killed eight militants in Musa Qala district of the southern province of Helmand on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.

#6: On the same day Afghan army troops killed another rebel and detained three others in Sarabi district of Khost province, while four other Taliban fighters were arrested in Yaqobi district of the same province.

#7: In a separate incident, one army soldier was killed and another wounded when their convoy was ambushed by a group of militants in the Koh Safi area of the north-eastern province of Parwan, the statement said, adding that the forces fought back, 'but the exact number of enemy casualties was not immediately clear.'

#8: Pakistan army forces killed at least 25 Islamic militants during overnight fighting in the country's volatile tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, a military spokesman said Wednesday. The clashes broke out after "miscreants" abducted four army soldiers in Ladha Fort in South Waziristan district late Tuesday, Lieutenant-Colonel Baseer Haider Malik said.
The military responded with artillery fire on the suspected militants' location, during which 25 were killed and several captured, he said.

#9: A coalition soldier and his Afghan interpreter were killed in a roadside attack. Two more US-led coalition soldiers were wounded in the roadside bomb attack, known as improvised explosive device (IED) in the south- eastern province of Khost on Wednesday, US military said in a statement.

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