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


Tuesday, July 26, 2011

War News for Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bombing rocked the city center of Iraqi capital Baghdad late on Monday, wounding three civilians, a police source said. The source, on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that the explosion took place on Abu-Nuwas street and no further detail could be obtained so far.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A bomb strapped to a motorcycle killed three people and wounded 14 others in a town northeast of Baghdad officials said Monday. Diyala province’s police spokesman Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi said the bomb was detonated by remote control.He says the explosives were packed on a motorcycle that was parked near a hospital. Health official Faris al-Azawi also confirmed the casualties and injuries from the Monday evening blast, which took place in Muqdadiyah, a town about 60 miles northeast of the capital.

#2: A roadside bomb planted close to a village mayor's house exploded, killing him and wounding his wife and daughter, on the northwestern outskirts of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.

#3: Gunmen using silenced weapons shot and seriously wounded a student in western Baquba, police said.


Hawija:
#1: A booby-trapped car blast that took place in Hawija township of north Iraq’s Kirkuk Province on Monday night, has killed 2 persons, injured 20 others and caused huge material damage, k Kirkuk Police Director said on Tuesday. “A booby-trapped car blew off on Monday night in a house in Hawija township, 65 km to the northwest of northern Iraq’s oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing 2 persons, injuring 20 others, along with destroying the house of Mohammed Nasif Jassim, along with causing severe damage to shops and houses close to the venue of the explosion,” Lt-Brigadier, Sarhad Qader told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A car bomb exploded inside a suspected insurgent's house when he was trying to set a booby-trap in Hawija, 210 km (130 miles) north of Baghdad, killing him and damaging surrounding houses and restaurants, police said.


Mosul:
#1: A security source in Ninewa province disclosed that a police officer was wounded due to a bomb explosion west of Mosul. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that a lieutenant was wounded by a bomb directed against his patrol.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: The office of Helmand Gov. Gulab Mangal said that two separate clashes on Monday left a total of 22 insurgents and two police officers dead. The governor's office also said two young boys were killed as they stepped on a roadside bomb in Helmand. Monday's clashes occurred in central and northern Helmand, the statement from the governor's office said. In one of the clashes, eight insurgents were killed near the town of Nadiali _ located near the provincial capital. Another 14 were killed and eight wounded when they attacked a police checkpoint in the Musa Qala district. The two police officers were killed in that attack, the statement said.

#2: NATO announced separately that nine insurgents were killed Monday in three separate incidents elsewhere in Afghanistan, including five during a raid to capture a local Taliban leader in eastern Laghman province.

#3: Militants targeted a vehicle used by the military-run construction company, the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), with a remote-controlled bomb in South Waziristan, killing one soldier and wounding two, local intelligence officials said.

#4: Separately, mortar bombs fired from Afghanistan wounded one soldier at a military check post near the border in South Waziristan, intelligence officials said. There was no independent confirmation of the cross-border firing.

#5: Militants injured two security forces personnel in a grenade attack Monday on a major NATO airbase at an airport in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, the local police chief said. "A few men threw hand grenades at the airport gate and the troops returned fire and the attackers fled," said Sardar Sultani, the police chief for Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital. Two members of the security forces were "slightly injured", he said, without specifying if they were foreign or Afghan military or police. Witnesses had reported seeing explosions, including rocket fire, at the entrance to the airport. "There were no gunshots from their side or suicide attacks ... The explosions were from the grenades," Sultani told. He said police were hunting the attackers, who may still be in the area.

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