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, October 13, 2011

War News for Thursday, October 13, 2011

The DoD is reporting a new death unreported by the military. Chief Warrant Officer 3 James B. Wilke died from an apparent non-combat related injury in Doha, Qatar on Monday, October 10th. He was supporting Operation New Dawn (OIF)


Every Nato kill-capture mission in Afghanistan detailed and visualised

PKK kills one civilian, one village guard in southeastern Turkey

US report: RPG downed Chinook in Afghanistan


Reported security incidents

Kut:
#1: The Iraqi Army in Wassit managed to dismantle a car bomb in the center of the province, while police sources announced strict security measures following the explosions in Baghdad.


Diwaniya:
#1: Gunmen shot dead an employee working at Diwaniya municipality office, near his house in central Diwaniya, 150 km (95 miles) south of Baghdad, local authorities said.


Amarra:
#1: A rocket attack on a United States military base in Iraq's southern Maysan province wounded three American soldiers on Wednesday, a US military spokesperson and an Iraqi security official said. “We have operational reports of five rockets landing on or near COS (Contingency Operating Station) Garry Owens that injured three service members,” the spokesperson said. “Reports indicate the attack took place this evening,” the spokesperson said, adding that COS Garry Owens is on Al-Batirah airfield, about 10km west of Amara, the capital of Maysan province.


Karbala:
#1: Gunmen in a speeding car shot dead Shiekh Muhanned al-Meaamar, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and his driver late on Tuesday, in southern Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Asi told Aswat al-Iraq that a U.S.
force, in cooperation with the Iraqi army, killed a civilian in front of his house after he was arrested along with two members of his family. No other details were given.

#2: In another security event, the joint coordination center in Kirkuk announced that a bomb exploded on the road connecting Kirkuk with Salah al-Din province. The bomb was directed against a military vehicle, which led to injuring two soldiers.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen using silenced weapons opened fire at an Iraqi army check point and killed two soliders in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Gunmen stormed a real state office and shot dead two people who were inside in eastern Mosul, police said.

#3: A roadside bomb went off and wounded two people in eastern Mosul, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Suspected militants here on Thursday torched 3 oil tankers, carrying oil for U.S.-led NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan. According to the media reports, the gunmen, riding motorcycles, first opened firing on the NATO oil tankers here, and torched three tankers. The oil tankers were coming from the port city of Karachi and heading to Afghanistan when came under attack. No one was injured in the attack.

Gunmen opened fire on an Afghanistan-bound convoy of Nato fuel supply trucks in the Shikarpur area of southern Sindh province, and set fire to six of them, police officials said. The tankers were parked outside a restaurant when they were attacked.

#2: A US drone attack has killed at least three suspected militants in north-west Pakistan, intelligence officials say. They say the drone fired two missiles close to a compound in the town of Miranshah in the North Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghan border.

#3: Pakistani forces used artillery to pound militant hideouts in the northwestern region of Orakzai, killing six suspected Pakistani Taliban insurgents, security officials said.

#4: A suspected U.S. drone fired three missiles at a group of militants in the South Waziristan border tribal region, killing at least three of them, intelligence officials said. The militants were setting up a position to fire rockets at a NATO post across the border in Afghanistan

#5: A civilian cargo plane flying from Bagram air base to Kabul crashed on the outskirts of the Afghan capital on Tuesday evening, killing all seven people on board, a spokesman for the ministry of civil aviation said.

#6: A rocket-propelled grenade attack on a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helicopter killed an Afghan interpreter and wounded eight Afghan and international troops, shortly after it landed at an outpost in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, ISAF said. The incident happened inside a base close to the border with Pakistan, in restive Kunar province.

#7: An air strike in the northern province of Kunduz killed two insurgents in the Gor Tappa area, ISAF said. ISAF forces tracked insurgents to a remote area before calling in the air strike. ISAF is still gathering evidence to confirm the results of the strike, an ISAF statement said.

#8: Six Afghan civilians, including women and children, died when a rocket fired by insurgents hit a vehicle in the southeastern province of Paktika on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.

#9: Two Afghan soldiers were killed in separate attacks, the ministry of defence said on Tuesday, without giving further details.

#10: Afghan and ISAF troops killed several insurgents in western Herat province in an operation on Tuesday targeting a Taliban leader from neighbouring Badghis province responsible for attacks and kidnapping, ISAF said in a statement. It was not yet clear if the targeted insurgent was among the dead, the statement said.

#11: Afghan and ISAF troops on Tuesday night killed Ansari Khan, a commander from the Haqqani Network who coordinated attacks in eastern Khost province, ISAF said in a statement. Two other insurgents were killed, and a woman wounded, in the attack on the compound where Khan was found, ISAF said.


DoD: Chief Warrant Officer James 3 B. Wilke

DoD: Sgt. Nathan L. Wyrick

1 comments:

Dancewater said...

At least 16 people have been killed by two blasts in Baghdad's predominantly Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City, Iraqi security officials say.

Police said the bombs went off at the al-Hay market. They said the first exploded in a narrow alley.

As people gathered, a second, more powerful blast went off nearby, which caused most of the casualties.

The bombings come a day after the Iraqi capital suffered its worst attacks since August.

Link here