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, April 4, 2011

War News for Monday, April 04, 2011

MNF-Iraq (OND) is reporting the deaths of two U.S. soldiers in an indirect fire attack in an undisclosed location in Iraq on Saturday, April 2nd.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, April 3rd.

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from a small-arms fire attack from an apparent Afghan Border policeman in Faryab province, Afghanistan on Monday, April 4th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb Monday morning detonated outside the house of a senior official of the Iraqi industrial ministry in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, killing one of his bodyguards and wounding three others, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

#2: In western Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off outside the house of an Awakening Council group member in Ameriyah district, killing him and causing damages to his house and nearby buildings, the source said.

#3: In a separate incident, another roadside bomb went off in front of the house of Razzaq Issah, the director general of the government-owned Iraqi Investments Board, wounding him and another person, the source added.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen using weapons equipped with silencers killed two policemen in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Three policemen were killed and 13 others were wounded late on Sunday night when a suicide car bomber struck a crowd of policemen gathered at the site of an earlier roadside bomb explosion in center of Ramadi city, the capital of Anbar province, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

At least 12 people were killed and injured on Sunday in two blasts occurred in quick succession in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a police source said on Monday. "A bomb attached to an officer car went off, targeting a police patrol near a school in the city, said the source, adding that a car bomb exploded then when security forces gathered in the site of the first blast," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "An officer and a policeman were killed and ten others, including six policemen and four civilians, were wounded in the explosions," he added.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A blast at a bus stand in the northwestern town of Dir, near the former Taliban stronghold of Swat, killed three people and wounded several more, police said. It is unclear what caused the blast, officials said.

A teenaged suicide bomber struck a bus terminal in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing seven people. The bomb exploded in the small town of Jandol in the district of Lower Dir, 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the capital Islamabad. Pakistani troops fought a major offensive to expunge the Taliban from the area nearly two years ago. Dir district police chief Saleem Marwat said seven civilians were killed and 18 wounded at the bus terminal, close to a car showroom, which was also damaged in the blast.

#2: Islamist rebels in northwestern Pakistan cut the throats of three security guards in the latest fatal attack on a NATO truck convoy headed for Afghanistan. The guards were killed at a NATO truck terminal in the town of Landi Kotal in the Khyber tribal district near the Afghan border. Suspected Taliban and al-Qaida rebels also damaged 10 oil tankers carrying fuel to resupply international troops in Afghanistan, a local Pakistan government administrator said. Police said around two dozen armed men attacked the parked vehicles and planted timed devices on 12 out of the 18 tankers. One of the devices failed to explode. Six people including five drivers and one of their assistants also were injured in the attack.

#3: Two suicide bombers set off an explosion on Sunday evening at a Sufi shrine compound in Pakistan, killing at least 42 people, police officials said. More than 100 people, including women and children, were wounded. The attack was aimed at a popular shrine of a Sufi saint, Sakhi Sarwar, in Dera Ghazi Khan, a remote district of Punjab Province, police officials said. An annual festival was in progress as hundreds of worshipers thronged the shrine compound when the attackers detonated their explosives. Police officers said the attackers failed to get inside the shrine because of strict security measures.

#4: Two suicide bombers were killed on Monday in front of a government agency building in Lashkar Gah, capital of Afghanistan's Helmand province some 555 km south of capital city of Kabul, a provincial administration spokesman said. "Two suicide bombers had the intention of attacking a provincial court office in Lashkar Gah at around 11:30 a.m. local time, but police identified and intercepted the bombers," Daud Ahmadi told Xinhua. He said the first bomber blew himself up after intercepted by police triggering an explosion that killed the bomber and injuring two civilians and a policeman on the scene. According to Ahmadi, the second bomber was shot dead by police force before he had the chance to detonate his explosive vest.


News: Filaret Motco (Civ.)

1 comments:

The Wiz said...

Some research being done at the Iraqi marshes