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, June 25, 2011

War News for Saturday, June 25, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed area in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, June 25th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In a separate incident, gunmen using pistols fitted with silencers shot dead a policeman in al-Liqaa Square in Baghdad's western district of Mansour, an interior ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

#2: In addition, a roadside bomb went off near a convoy of U.S. military vehicles in Baghdad's western district of Adil, the source said without giving further details as the U.S. troops immediately sealed off the scene.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: In early Saturday, gunmen with their assault rifles broke into the house of Tahir Ahmed, deputy head of local town hall in Abu Ghraib area, some 20 km west of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The attacker shot dead Ahmed and his son before they fled the scene, the source said.


Baiji:
#1: Gunmen raided the house of a policeman and killed him and his wife in central Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) northwest of Baghdad, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: An Iraqi civilian has been killed and three others injured in a sticking explosive charge blast east of western Iraq’s city of Falluja on Friday night, a security source reported. “An explosive charge blew off in Karma village, east of Falluja city in west Iraq’s Anbar Province on Friday night, killing a civilian and wounding three others, all from one family,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: An unknown armed group has blown off the house of an Iraqi Army officer, with a captain rank, south of Falluja city, in western Iraq’s Anbar Province on Saturday, a police source reported.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A sport utility vehicle packed with explosives blew up outside of a clinic in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 60 people and leveling the 10-bed medical center, Afghan authorities said. The massive blast in the mountainous Azra district of Logar province, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Kabul, also wounded at least 120, the Afghan Health Ministry said. Dr. Mohammad Zaref Nayebkhail, the provincial health director, said the clinic guards tried to prevent the bomber from driving into the compound. "The driver didn't stop and he entered the compound and reached the main building of the health center, where the truck detonated," Nayebkhail said. The force of the blast caused the building housing the 10-bed clinic to collapse, trapping at least 15 people underneath the rubble. "Right now, local people are helping to dig out bodies or wounded people from the ruined buildings," he said.

#2: One tank and two fuel tankers belonging to the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan have been destroyed in a roadside bomb explosion in Wardak province. Afghan officials said NATO helicopters arrived at the site of the incident and probably took the bodies of the victims as well as the injured, a Press TV correspondent reported on Saturday. No report of casualties has so far been given.

#3: In another incident late Friday, Taliban militants attacked a convoy of foreign forces on the road from the Afghan capital of Kabul to Nangarhar and destroyed two fuel tankers. An Afghan commander was killed in the assault.

#4: Unknown armed men have blown up a key gas pipeline in Pakistan's southwestern conflict-riddled province of Baluchistan, halting gas flow to different parts of the region. On Friday, militants dynamited a 16-inch diameter gas pipeline in Pirkoh area Dera Bugti district, cutting the supplies to the provincial capital Quetta and five other districts, a Press TV correspondent reported.

#5: At least 10 people, including a police officer, were killed when a bicycle rigged with explosives blew up in a bazaar in northern Afghanistan, authorities said today. The Afghan Interior Ministry said the blast struck the bazaar in the Khanabad district of Kunduz province late yesterday. The ministry said in a statement today that 24 other people were injured in the attack, including five women and a policeman.

#6: Fifteen militants were killed and eight wounded in a clash between rival militant Islamist groups in Orakzai tribal region in the northwest, local officials said.

DoD: Cpl. Gurpreet Singh

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