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, September 4, 2012

War News for Tuesday, September 04, 2012

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan, on Monday, September 3rd.


Pakistan: Secret Report Warns of Taliban Attacks in Islamabad and Rawalpindi

US troops to stay even after complete transition

Lower Dir border with Afghanistan sealed


Reported security incidents
#1: Unknown gunmen set fire to two Nato oil tankers and injured three drivers on National Highway near Dhadars Bypass area of Balochistan’s Kachhi district on Tuesday. Media Reports said Police said two afghanistan-bound Nato oil tankers were coming from Karachi when armed men intercepted and opened fire on them. Three drivers sustained bullet wounds while two oil tankers caught fire and were incinerated.

#2: Afghan police and army, backed by the NATO-led coalition forces, have eliminated 27 armed Taliban insurgents during operations within the past 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said Tuesday morning. "A total of six armed Taliban insurgents were also detained and one other wounded in 20 cleanup operations launched in Kunduz, Kandahar, Zabul, Logar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Paktia, Farah and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates to the media.
 
#3: Meanwhile, a pro-government key tribal elder was injured in a roadside bomb attack late yesterday in Achin district of eastern Ningarhar province, a local resident said Monday. A resident of Mamoon area, Achin district, told Afghan Islamic Press that a vehicle travelling in by the key tribal elder, Malak Niaz, struck a landmine in the same area, leaving the tribal elder wounded. He said opponents again attacked him in Shadal area when he was being shifted to hospital. Another resident told AIP that heavy fighting was continuing the Papeen area of the same district.

#4: Three Afghan civilians were killed and four more injured when a mortar round allegedly fired by the armed opponents hit a populous bazaar in Maqur district Monday. One of the five mortar rounds fired by the armed opponents hit the bazaar of Maqur district, three landed in deserted areas while one landed near the district headquarters, the Ghazni governor's spokesman Fazl Muhammad Sabaon told the Afghan Islamic Press.

#5: At least seven civilians were injured Tuesday morning in two successive blasts in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of southern Afghan province of Helmand, the police said. "Two explosive-laden tricycles went off in a quick succession near a car market in Lashkar Gah Monday morning, leaving the casualties," a provincial police spokesman, Farid Ahmad Farhang, told Xinhua. The obvious target of the blasts was two Afghan military vehicles running the area but no security force member was injured in the incident, he said. The explosive were placed under pastures in the vehicles and the first blast occurred at around 9:00 a.m. local time, Farhang said, adding that the initial probe suggests that the serial explosions were a "planned and coordinated" act.


DoD: Spc. Kyle R. Rookey

0 comments: