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


Monday, April 30, 2012

War News for Monday, April 30, 2012

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, April 28th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, April 28th.
 
NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Monday, April 30th.
 

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Philippines Role May Expand as U.S. Adjusts Asia Strategy

Joseph Kony hunt is proving difficult for U.S. troops


Reported security incidents
#1: Afghan officials say a buried bomb has killed two children in the east of the country. The Paktika provincial governor's office said in a statement Monday that the children triggered the explosion while playing outside Sunday in Surobi district. The statement says the two dead children were about 12 years old, without giving their gender. Another child was seriously wounded.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/04/30/2256222/bomb-in-eastern-afghanistan-kills.html#storylink=cpy

#2: suspected U.S. drone strike killed three people Sunday at a high school in northern Pakistan where militants were hiding, intelligence officials said. The drone fired two missiles at the school in the city of Miranshah, killing three suspected militants, the Pakistani intelligence officials said.

#3: Fourteen Taliban militants have been killed and 16 others detained during military operations conducted by Afghan forces and NATO-led coalition troops within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Monday morning. "Afghan police, Army and NATO-led Coalition Forces launched five joint cleanup operations in Kabul, Nangarhar, Zabul, Logar and Ghazni provinces over the last 24 hours, killing 14 armed Taliban insurgents and detaining 16 other armed insurgents," the ministry said in a statement.

According to a statement released by International Security Assistance Force, Afghan and coalition forces killed four insurgents, detained four suspects and discovered a weapons cache in eastern Afghanistan during operations throughout the past 24 hours.


DoD: Staff Sgt. Andrew T. Brittonmihalo


MoD: Guardsman Michael Roland

Posted by whisker at 4:21 AM

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