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, July 1, 2010

War News for Thursday, July 01, 2010

I'm having numerous computer hard wear problems including my monitor is dying so I hope to have a new one this afternoon....until then there's no post for today. -- whisker

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Earlier this week my computer packed a hissy fit, which was immediately outperformed by mine when I discovered the only solution was to restore the machine to the factory settings. As the blue screen of death lit up and then turned as black as my mood, I realised with horror that all the programmes I had downloaded over recent years were permanently lost.

So began the excruciating process of reinstalling them and coaxing, bribing and finally cursing my computer for its utter inability to understand gutter English and do what the #@*% I told it to.

Anonymous said...

MAP 6.4 2010/07/02 06:04:05 -13.664 166.409 35.0 VANUATU

Anonymous said...

Or in German

MAP 4.8 2010/07/02 01:12:47 -14.352 167.298 212.9 VANUATU