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


Thursday, September 4, 2008

War News for Thursday, September 04, 2008

Photo: Exclusive: our journalists have found the Taliban who have killed ten soldiers french:

A French magazine published photos on Thursday of Taliban fighters with trophies taken from French soldiers killed last month in Afghanistan, setting off a new round of pained debate about France's presence there.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths of two Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier in a roadside bombing in an eastern neighborhood of Baghdad on Thursday, September 4th. No other details were released.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier in an explosion in a southern province of Afghanistan on Thursday, September 4th. No other details were released. The Telegraph is reporting this to be a British ISAF soldier who died in an IED attack in the Sangin region in Helmand province.


US military confirms ground assault in Pakistan

Under attack, how nine Diggers were wounded


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: The U.S. military arrested an Iraqi cameraman and three of his family members Thursday during a raid on their home in Baghdad, an official with Baghdad TV said. The cameraman, Omar Husham, 28, was arrested at his house in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, said the television official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security reasons. His father and two brothers were also detained, the official said.

#2: U.S. army forces killed one gunman and detained 15 others during operations that targeted bombing cells in the Iraqi capital and the Tigris River Valley.

#3: A high-ranking official in the Iraqi Ministry of Transport was gunned down in northeastern Baghdad, an Iraqi police source said on Thursday. "Unknown gunmen assassinated the general director of the project implementation department in the Iraqi Ministry of Transport, Abdelhassan al-Shuweili, in northeast Baghdad," the source, who preferred to remain unnamed, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq. "The gunmen intercepted Shuweili's car after he left his house in Baghdad's northeastern neighborhood of Ur, shooting him down," the source noted.

#4: Wednesday Police found one dead body in Baghdad today in Shaab neighborhood(north Baghdad).

#5: Three people were wounded when a suspected al- Qaeda militant tossed a grenade at a U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol checkpoint in the Adhamiya district of northern Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

#6: Four civilians were inured by a roadside bomb in Zafaraniyah area in southeast Baghdad around 3:00 p.m.

#7: Two Iraqi soldiers were injured when gunmen attacked a checkpoint of the Iraqi army in Mansour neighborhood in west Baghdad around 3:00 p.m.

#8: Police found one unidentified body in Mansour neighborhood.


Diyala Prv:
Baquba:
#1: A woman died on Thursday in an explosive charge blast that occurred in the south of Baaquba city, a local security source said. "Today, an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near an orchard in al-Maradiya area (7 km south of Baaquba), killing a woman who was on her way to the orchard," the source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq.


Tikrit:
#1: Four policemen were wounded on Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in the city of Tikrit, 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, a provincial security spokesman said.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen killed a 12 years Kurdish child in al Noor neighborhood in downtown Mosul city on Wednesday evening. Police said that the gunmen were driving Opel sedan when they shot the child and run away.

#2: A policeman was killed when clashes broke in between the Iraqi police and insurgents in New Mosul area in south Mosul on Thursday afternoon.



Afghanistan:
#1: American troops in Afghanistan will step up offensive operations this winter because insurgents are increasingly staying in the country to prepare for spring attacks, said a U.S. commander.

#2: TALIBAN militants kidnapped 25 police recruits while they were travelling to a training centre in northwestern Pakistan, said a senior police official. The trainees were kidnapped late yesterday in lawless Orakzai tribal district bordering Afghanistan while they were en route to a police college in the town of Hangu, said provincial police chief Malik Mohammad Naveed.

#3: A top judge in Afghanistan's counternarcotics court, working to bring to justice key players in the world's biggest opium-producing country, was gunned down in Kabul Thursday, his office said. Gunmen shot dead Alim Hanif, chief judge of the Central Narcotics Tribunal appeals court, soon after he left home to go to work, the Counter Narcotics- Criminal Justice Task Force (CJTF) said. "Judge Alim Hanif was shot on his way to work and later died of his injuries in hospital," it said in a statement.

#4: Four Islamist militants were killed and five wounded in a missile attack by a suspected U.S. drone in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region on Thursday, security officials and witnesses said. The attack targeted the house of a tribesman, Rehman Wali, in the Mohammad Khel area, near the border with Afghanistan, where the militants were hiding. "Apparently three missiles were fired by the drone," a witness in the area told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

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