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


Tuesday, June 9, 2009

War News for Tuesday, June 09, 2009

The DND/CF is reporting the death of a Canadian ISAF soldier in an IED attack south-west of Kandahar City, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on Monday, June 8th. No other details were released.


Justice Dept.: 1st Gitmo detainee arrives in US:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: A mortar round hit the gas-cylinder plant in Tariq neighbourhood, northeastern Baghdad at 3 a.m. Tuesday exploding around one thousand gas cylinders and injuring three guards.


Tikrit:
#1: A member of the Salah el-Din council from the Iraqi List, Faten Abdulqader, said on Monday that her house was attacked by machine guns but without casualties. “My house in al-Qadissiya neighborhood in the north of Tikrit was attacked early Monday (June 8) with machine guns by gunmen,” she told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “They opened fire at the house and broke the windows by thanks god no one of my family was hurt,” she added.


Kirkuk:
#1: A U.S. drone fell down on Monday in a river in Kirkuk, the chief of the Kirkuk police said.
“A U.S. unmanned aircraft felled down on Monday (June 8) in Khasa river in central Kirkuk and was destroyed completely,” General Tourhan Abdulrahman told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. No word was immediately available from the U.S. army on the incident.


Mosul:
#1: A preparatory school student was killed on Monday by gunmen in central Mosul, according to a security source. “The student was killed by gunmen in a popular marketplace in Bab al-Saray region in central Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Two civilians were wounded Monday when an Iraqi army force detonated a car bomb driven by a suicide bomber in northern Mosul, a security source said. “Iraqi army forces managed to detonate a car rigged with explosives driven by a suicide bomber, who was targeting an army checkpoint in al-Rashiediya region in northern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The explosion wounded two civilians,” he added, noting that they forces opened fire at the attacker and detonated the car before hitting the checkpoint.

#3: An improvised explosive device went off Monday in front of the house of a police officer in central Mosul, leaving no casualties, a security source said. “An explosive charge went off in front of the house of Colonel Faez al-Nujiefi, in al-Tayaran neighborhood in central Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#4: A roadside bomb targeted a U.S. military convoy in Ras al Jada, central Mosul Tuesday afternoon injuring two civilian passers by.


Al Anbar Prv:
Fallujah:
#1: Two policemen on Tuesday were wounded in an explosive charge blast in eastern Falluja city, according to a local police source. “This morning, an improvised explosive device (IED) targeted a police patrol vehicle in Nahr Faleeh area, eastern Falluja city, wounding two patrolmen,” Captain Iyad Mohammed al-Zubaie told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The captain did not provide further details.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War
#1: A blast near a U.S. troop convoy in eastern Afghanistan killed at least one child and wounded scores of civilians on Tuesday, a provincial governor said. The U.S. military said three U.S. soldiers and at least one Afghan child were hurt in the blast. Some witnesses blamed a U.S. soldier for throwing a grenade into a crowd, however the U.S. military said a grenade had been thrown by an insurgent. U.S. military spokeswoman Captain Elizabeth Matthias said a convoy of U.S. troops had stopped when one of its armored vehicles became stuck. The convoy took ground fire and an insurgent threw a grenade, wounding three soldiers and a 12-year-old boy, she said. She said the military was checking reports other civilians were also hurt.

#2: Six people were wounded Monday when masked men on a motorbike lobbed a hand grenade at a gathering of people in the Balochistan province, police said. DSP Sadar Khalid Manzoor told DawnNews that some people were sitting outside a tent in a street on Brewery road when assailants riding a motorbike hurled a grenade at them. Six people including two children received injuries as the result of the attack. Police shifted the injured to Bolan Medical Complex hospital where their condition is stated to be stable. The attack came as people were attending a religious ceremony in a tent in the provincial capital Quetta, Manzoor told AFP. ‘The hand grenade missed the target and landed outside the tent, otherwise the casualties would have been heavy,’ Manzoor said. ‘It was a terrorist act. The culprits could be those who are opposed to peace in the region,’ he added.

#3: During last 24 hours, 27 militants were killed and 22 were arrested in various areas of Malakand in northwestern Pakistan, said the military in a press release Tuesday. One soldier was killed and nine others were injured in the military operation in Malakand, a division of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), according to the press release. In Upper Dir, it said, Lashkars or militiamen secured four villages and killed 13 militants.

#4: A local government official says Pakistan's military has started shelling Taliban hide-outs in Bannu district in the country's northwest. Bannu's district coordination officer, Kamran Zeb Khan, told the Associated Press the military operation began Tuesday morning after a deadline given to tribal leaders in the region to hand over militant suspects had expired. Bannu sits alongside South and North Waziristan, two semiautonomous tribal districts bordering Afghanistan where al-Qaida and the Taliban are believed to be entrenched.

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