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


Monday, November 9, 2009

War News for Monday, November 09, 2009

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier in an IED attack near Sangin, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Saturday, November 7th. (note this was reported by Cervantes yesterday)

The British MoD is reporting the death of a second British ISAF soldier in an IED attack near Sangin, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Sunday, November 8th.

Nato is reporting the death of an American soldier in an undisclosed location in western Afghanistan on Saturday, November 7th.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - West Marine in a non-combat related incident in an undisclosed location in Iraq on Sunday, November 8th.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths of two soldiers in a helicopter crash in an undisclosed area in Salah ad Din Province on Sunday, November 8th.



Andy Declares War on War:

America attacked as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney dithered (video)

MV-22s Fly Into Afghanistan:


Reported security incidents

Diyala Prv:
#1: A civilian man was wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in the district of al-Khalis on Sunday. An IED went off on Sunday near a house belonging to a displaced man who had just returned to his original residential section in Khalis, (15 km) north of Baaquba, leaving a civilian man who happened to be near the blast scene wounded and the house severely damaged,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A Sahwa council leader on Monday survived an assassination attempt when a sticky bomb hit his car in Diala, according to a local security source. “On Monday, a sticky improvised explosive device (IED) went off at a parking garage belonging to Diala’s education department, downtown Baaquba, near the vehicle of Abdulrahman al-Jassam, a Sahwa leader in southern Bahraz, who works for the department,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kut:
#1: Police forces on Monday found a body belonging to a girl north of Kut, according to a local security source. “The body was half buried in a barren land near a brick factory (15 km north of Kut City),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Samarra:
#1: A roadside bomb went off on Monday targeting a U.S. patrol near Samara city, said a source from the Iraqi police. “The incident took place in central al-Moatasem district, 10 km south of Samara,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.He said that the blast damaged a U.S. hammer vehicle. The source said that U.S. forces deployed support in the area, and closed a nearby main road for more than two hours.


Kirkuk:
#1: A leader in the Sadrist Movement, led by Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, has been killed by unknown gunmen in southern Kirkuk, a local security source said on Monday. “The police received reports that unknown gunmen had killed a man with silencer-equipped gun inside a foodstuffs store in al-Asra wal Mafqodeen neighborhood (southern Kirkuk) at 08:30 p.m. yesterday (Nov.8),” Col. Anwar Qadir told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “Preliminary investigations have shown that the victim was Hadi Issa al-Thihabi, a key leader in the Sadrist Movement in Kirkuk,” the colonel noted.


Mosul:
#1: A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in Sarj Khana neighbourhood, central Mosul, Sunday afternoon killing three policemen and injuring five civilians.

#2: An attacker threw a hand grenade at an Iraqi police patrol, wounding 10 people in central Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, on Sunday, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: The Falluja police on Sunday dismantled a car bomb parked on the Commercial Street in the central part of the city, a security source said.

#2: Two civilians on Monday were injured in an explosive charge blast in downtown Falluja, according to a local security source. “A roadside improvised explosive device (IED) went off in al-Jumhouriya neighborhood, central Falluja, while a police patrol vehicle was passing the location,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A suicide bomber in a rickshaw detonated his explosives near a group of policemen in northwest Pakistan's main city of Peshawar, killing three people Monday, police said. Five other people were wounded in the blast at an intersection on the main road that circles the city, police official Shaukat Khan said. TV footage showed a crane lifting the rickshaw's carcass to clear the road.

#2: Militants have also stepped up attacks in other areas near the Afghan border. A roadside bomb killed two paramilitary troops and wounded a third in Salarzai town in the Bajur tribal region, said a local government official, Abdul Wadood Qureshi.

#3: The soldiers have been battling militants in three key Taliban bases in South Waziristan over the past few days. Fighting over the past 24 hours has killed eight militants and four soldiers, an army statement said Monday. The soldiers were killed when militants fired rockets at a checkpoint in Makeen, the last of the three key Taliban bases the army entered Friday.

#4: Two workers of a road construction company were killed and two others sustained injuries as a roadside bomb went off in Paktika province, in east Afghanistan, on Monday, a private television channel said. The blast occurred in Sarhawza district Monday morning, killing two workers on the spot and injuring two others, said Tolo report in its news bulletin.

#5: An Afghan police official says at least two private security guards have been wounded and two fuel tankers set on fire in eastern Afghanistan when militants attacked a supply convoy for NATO forces. Provincial police spokesman Ghafor Khan says the two were injured in a battle Sunday near Jalalabad between the enemy combatants and private guards providing security for the convoy. He says other tankers were damaged along the highway, a main supply route between Pakistan and the Afghan capital of Kabul.

#6: One Afghan soldier was killed and another was wounded by insurgent fire in the eastern province of Laghman overnight, the Afghan Defence Ministry said.

#7: NATO and Afghan officials claimed on Monday their forces had killed at least 130 Taliban fighters in a major operation over the past week in an area of Afghanistan's north where militant activity has surged. A combined force of 700 Afghan troops and 50 NATO soldiers cleared villages of fighters, killing more than 130 insurgents including eight Taliban commanders during a five-day operation, NATO spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician said.

#8: Afghan police shot dead two would-be suicide bombers in Afghanistan's southern Ghazni province on Monday, a press release of Interior Ministry said. "Two suicide bombers driving an explosive-laden car heading from Andar district to the provincial capital Ghazni city were gunned down by policemen," the press release said. Police shot them dead after the would-be suicide bombers refused to stop their car for checking, it further said. One constable also sustained injuries in the incident, the press release stressed.

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