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


Saturday, May 21, 2011

War News for Saturday, May 21, 2011

German forces shoot Afghan protestors


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen equipped with silenced weapons shot dead Col. Nameer Khazaal, an officer working for the local forensics office in Baghdad's southwestern district of Bayaa, an Interior Ministry source said.

#2: Gunmen using silenced weapons shot dead two employees working at the Iraqi intelligence facility in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded near a house of Saadoun al- Mashaikhi, a mosque imam while he was returning from prayer, wounding him and killing two people, including his son in southern Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Three civilians were injured due to a stick bomb in their car in Baaquba city.


Amarra:
#1: The office director of the Legislature of al-Ahrar (Liberals) Bloc in southern Iraq’s Missan Province has been injured in an attack on his car north of its center city of Amara, a Missan security source said on Friday. “A group of armed men opened machinegun fire on the car of Al-Ahrar MP, Raf’e Abdul-Jabbar’s Missan office director, Mohammed Qassem on Friday, seriously wounding,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that he was driven to a nearby hospital for treatment.


Basra:
#1: A Basra police force has arrested two persons, while trying to plant an explosive charge in Hartha area, north of Basra on Saturday, a security source said. “Two persons, trying to plant an explosive charge on the main highway, connecting Baghdad with Basra, close to Hartha area, 20 km to the north of Basra, have been detained” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Tikrit:
#1: The director of Police Department of Alam District in Tikrit and his driver were injured due to a sticky bomb in their car, police sources in Salah al-Din province said today. Two other persons were also injured due to an explosion in local market mid of Tikrit city.

#2: A civilian was hurt by a sticky bomb planted in his car near Great Tikrit Mosque in the center of the city at the end of Friday prayers, police sources said today.

#3: and another bomb that led to two casualties in the local market of the city.


Hawija:
#1: A roadside bomb wounded two civilians in Hawija, 210 km (130 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol, killed two soldiers and wounded two others in the southwest of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad on Friday, police said.

#2: Gunmen opened fire at the house of an off-duty policeman, wounding him in southern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#3: The corpses of two brothers, killed in Kirkuk, were found inside their house north of the city on Saturday, a Kirkuk police source said. “A force, belonging to Kirkuk’s Azadi Police have found two corpses of two brothers, killed in their house north of the city, according to intelligence information,” the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said that one of the victims was a policeman and his brother was a salesman.


Mosul:
#1: Two policemen were killed and eight others wounded when two successive roadside bombs went off in central Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad on Friday, police said. The second bomb exploded when security forces gathered at the scene.

#2: Gunmen opening fire at a police checkpoint killed one policeman in western Mosul late on Friday, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Five insurgents were killed and one wounded when a homemade bomb they were preparing exploded in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, provincial governor Jamaluddin Badr told Reuters. The blast took place inside a house in Paron, the capital of the volatile Nuristan province.

#2: Four soldiers with the Iowa National Guard were injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Wednesday. The four were wounded when the vehicle they were in hit an improvised explosive device. There was no information on the extent of their injuries.

#3: The Afghan Defense Ministry says a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a tent filled with medical students eating lunch at a military hospital in Kabul Saturday, killing at least six people and wounding 23. Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Zaher Azimi says Saturday's blast occurred on the grounds of the Mohammad Daud Khan military hospital in central Kabul.

#4: At least 16 people were killed in northwest Pakistan after a bomb attack claimed by a militant group hit a truck carrying fuel supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan. It took place near the Torkham border crossing in the Khyber region, the main route for moving supplies to NATO and American forces in Afghanistan. “The tanker was on fire because of a blast late in the night. There was another blast early in the morning in the same tanker and 16 people who gathered near it to collect oil were killed,” a senior local administration official in Khyber said. Police officials said the first blast was caused by a bomb.

#5: In another attack in the same region, a bomb struck 16 NATO fuel trucks late on Friday, setting them on fire. No one was hurt.

#6: Eight suspected militants were killed on Saturday when army gunship helicopters attacked their hideouts in Orakzai region, adjoining Khyber, local officials said.

#7: A US drone strike destroyed a vehicle in Pakistan's Taliban-infested North Waziristan district on the Afghan border Friday, killing four suspected militants, local officials said. The two missiles struck the Tappi area, 10 kilometres (six miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, where US officials want Pakistan to launch an offensive against networks fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan. "A US drone targeting a militants' vehicle fired two missiles killing four militants," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

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