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, July 26, 2008

War News for Saturday, July 26, 2008

July 24 airpower summary:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol in Ghazaliyah, western Baghdad at 3 p.m. Friday injuring two soldiers.

#2: A roadside bomb detonated in the afternoon inside a popular market in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, wounding six people, including three security members, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Around 2 pm a roadside bomb targeted civilians in Kamb Sara in Adhamiyah neighborhood (north Baghdad). Six people were injured (including 1 policeman and two Sahwa members).

#3: Another roadside bomb went off before midday near an Iraqi army patrol in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Sleikh, wounding two soldiers and a civilian along with damaging one of the patrol's vehicles, the source said.

#4: A third explosion occurred in the day near some dustmen in the al-Jihad neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, injuring two of them and caused damages to a nearby vehicle, the source added.

#5: Around 3 p.m. gunmen attacked and injured awakening council official in Daowdi neighborhood, west Baghdad.

#6: Around 4 p.m. a roadside bomb targeted awakening council member, a U.S. backed militia, in Sleikh neighborhood, injuring two militia members.

#7: Police found one dead body throughout Baghdad in Baladiyat neighborhood.


Kirkuk:
#1: On Friday night a gunman with silencer opened fire on an American patrol in downtown Kirkuk. A 14 year-old kid was killed in that incident .

#2: In the morning gunmen opened fire on a combined patrol from Iraqi security forces and Americans. One Iraqi policeman was killed and another was injured.


Mosul:
#1: A policeman was killed by gunmen fire in clashes in the western part of Mosul city on Saturday, a police source in Ninewa province said.



Afghanistan:
#1: British soldiers in Afghanistan today killed four civilians and injured three more after opening fire on a vehicle that failed to stop at a checkpoint, Nato officials and reports said. The incident happened near a UK military base in the south of the country from where an army dog handler set out before being killed in an ambush two days ago.

#2: Afghan police killed a Taliban commander on Friday after he attacked a police checkpoint with a group of insurgents in the northeastern province of Takhar, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday. Mulla Osman was the commander of anti-government operations in the country's northeast, it said.

#3: Afghan soldiers killed five insurgents and detained nine more in the western province of Farah during an operation that started on Thursday, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

#4: Coalition forces killed one militant in the eastern province of Kapisa on Friday after he threatened the soldiers, the U.S. military said on Saturd


Casualty Reports:

A.J. DiBuono, 22, a Marine, was on patrol Sunday in a Humvee when the vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and small weapons fire in Afghaniatan, his mother, Nicci McClearn, said Friday. DiBuono was hit by shraphnel is his neck, shoulder, hands, calf and feet. The injuries to his hands are described as severe, she said, and he's already had surgery to remove part of his left thumb.

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