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


Saturday, February 23, 2013

War News for Saturday, February 23, 2013


TAPI pipeline to start commercial operation by 2017-18  and here's how it all started - whisker

Nato may station 8,000-12,000 troops in post-2014 Afghanistan

U.S. Opens Niger Drone Base, Building Africa Presence


Reported security incidents
#1: Units of Afghan police have killed 17 Taliban militants during series of operations across the militancy-plagued country over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Saturday. The operations, according to the statement, were carried out in Nangarhar, Laghman, Kandahar and Logar provinces during which four more militants had made captive. It did not say if there were any casualties on the police side.

#2: Police recovered and defused an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Satellite Town in the provincial capital (Quetta) on Friday afternoon.Police sources said that unknown men had planted IED against the wall of a house in Satellite Town.On receiving information about the suspected thing attached with the wall, the Satellite Town police along with Bomb Disposal Squad reached the site and defused the explosive.According to BDS team, about four to five kg explosives were used in the IED.

#3: A roadside bomb struck police van in Kunduz province 250 km north of Kabul on Saturday, wounding three police personnel, provincial police chief Mohammad Khalil Andarabai said. "A mine planted by anti-government militants struck a police vehicle at around 01:30 p.m. today injuring three policemen," Andarabi said to Xinhua. The incident, he added took place on the road leading to Shir Khan Bandar border town.

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