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


Friday, November 18, 2011

War News for Friday, November 18, 2011

Two soldiers from the Queen's Dragoon Guards killed in Afghanistan

Afghan boy attacked by Diggers' dog

Three million Afghans face hunger as winter looms

National Guard (in Federal Status) and Reserve Activated as of November 15, 2011


Reported security incidents




Abu Ghraib:
#1: Two policemen were killed and nine others were injured in three separate bombings in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, security sources said Friday. The back-to-back bombings targeted mosques in the district of Abu Gharib, 20 kilometres west of Baghdad, reported the Iraqi website Al Sumaria News, quoting a security official.


Hawija:
#1: Gunmen shot and wounded an off-duty policeman near his house in Hawija, 210 km (130 miles) north of Baghdad, a local police source said.


Mosul:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded near the convoy of Police Major Jabbar Rasheed on Thursday, killing him and a civilian in southern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a local police source said.

#2: A parked car bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed a civilian in eastern Mosul on Thursday, a local police source said.

#3: A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol wounded a soldier in eastern Mosul on Thursday, a local police source said.

#4: A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol wounded a policeman in western Mosul on Thursday, a local police source said.

#5: An attacker threw a hand grenade at an Iraqi police patrol, wounding one policeman, in western Mosul on Thursday, a local police source said.

#6: Gunmen shot and wounded a civilian near his house in western Mosul on Thursday, a local police source said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Five civilians killed and three injured from one family in bomb blast around the residence of a cop in Saqlawiya, north of Falluja, security sources said here today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that an armed group implanted a number of bombs around the house, 22 km north of Falluja city. The explosion resulted in killing five civilians and injuring three from the same family, while the cop himself was not at home.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A provincial official says a roadside bomb has killed four children and wounded six in eastern Afghanistan. Ahmad Zia Abdulzia, a spokesman for the governor of eastern Nangarhar province, says the bomb exploded on Friday near a playground in Behsud district.

Four children were killed and six more wounded in a mortar blast in Behsud district of Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan, on Friday, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial governor said in a statement.

#2: Sources said on Friday that five militants were killed and several others injured in a clash during search operation in Nala area of the Bara district of Khyber Agency. They added that seven militants were also killed and over a dozen injured when the gunship helicopters shelled in Central Kurram agency.

#3: A U.S. drone strike killed eight militants, including foreigners, in the North Waziristan tribal region along the Afghan border, local intelligence officials said. Four militants were also wounded in the attack.

#4: At least 22 militants were killed in clashes between Pakistani security forces and Taliban militants in a remote district of the Orakzai tribal region in the northwest, local government officials said. There was no word on casualties from government forces. There was no independent confirmation of militant casualties, and militants often dispute official accounts.

#5: Six insurgents were killed and one arrested during three joint operations of the Afghan police, army, National Directorate of Security and coalition forces in Kunar, Nuristan and Uruzgan provinces over the last 24 hours, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.


DoD: Spc. James R. Burnett Jr.

DoD: Pfc. Matthew C. Colin

MoD: Lance Corporal Peter Eustace

2 comments:

Dancewater said...

Photo caption:
Iraqi and Iranians protest in the northeastern Iraqi city of Baquba, the capital of the province of Diyala, on November 18, 2011, calling on the government to have the residents of the Ashraf camp deported and the camp closed. Iraq has served a virtual 'death warrant' on some 3,400 Iranian dissidents exiled in a camp north of Baghdad, the head of the European parliament's delegation for relations with Iraq said. Camp Ashraf was set up when Iraq and Iran were at war in the 1980s by the People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) and was later placed under US control until January 2009, when US forces transferred security for the camp to Iraq. AFP PHOTO/STR (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images) Date created: 17 Apr 2014

the date created is obviously wrong.

Anonymous said...

Ron Paul for prez or God help us