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


Wednesday, June 27, 2012

War News for Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Top US, NATO commander in Afghanistan visits Pakistan amid tension over Haqqani network


Reported security incidents
#1: In the south, four officers were killed when they responded to an explosion in Musa Qala district on Wednesday, said provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi. No one was killed in the first blast, but a second, apparently remote-controlled, bomb hit the policemen when they got to the scene to investigate.


#2: In Herat province in the west, an ambush killed four policemen on patrol in Ghoryan district late Tuesday, said provincial government spokesman Noor Khan.

#3: Also, in Kunduz province in the north, two police officers were killed when their truck hit a roadside bomb early Wednesday, said Kunduz province police chief Gen. Samihullah Qatrah.

A roadside bomb struck a police van in Kunduz province 250 km north of capital Kabul on Wednesday, killing three policemen and wounding three others, police said. "It was a remote-controlled bomb that struck a police van when a convoy of police was passing the Hazrat Sultan area in the provincial capital Kunuz city this morning as a result three personnel of Civil Order Police were martyred and three others sustained injuries," provincial police chief Samiullah Qatra told Xinhua.

#4: At least four people were killed and two others injured in a US drone strike launched in Pakistan 's northwest tribal area of North Waziristan on Tuesday night, reported local Urdu TV channel Dunya. According to the report, the US drones fired two missiles at a house suspected of being a militants' hideout in the Tehsil Shawal area of North Waziristan at about 9:00 p.m. Tuesday, leaving at least four people inside the house killed and two others wounded.

#5: Afghan police and army, backed by NATO-led coalition forces, have killed 37 Taliban insurgents during operations in different provinces within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Wednesday morning. "The joint forces carried out 12 cleanup operations in Kabul, Laghman, Parwan, Kunduz, Sari Pul, Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Uruzgan and Farah provinces, killing 37 armed Taliban insurgents and detaining three other suspects over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement. Up to 14 other insurgents were injured in the raids, the statement added.


DoD: Lance Cpl. Niall W. Cotisears

Posted by whisker at 3:03 AM

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