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, July 9, 2013

War News for Tuesday, July 09, 2013


Obama strongly considers withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan in 2014

In an interview to a British newspaper, Khan said 35 militant groups were operating under the name of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Leaked Report Cites Pakistan’s Failings Before U.S. Killed Bin Laden


Reported security incidents:
#1: The Afghan army's commander in southern Afghanistan says one of his troops opened fire on American soldiers at Kandahar airfield but did not cause any casualties. Gen. Abdul Hamid said the shooter was taken into custody after the Tuesday morning incident and is now being questioned.

#2: One tribesman was injured when his home in Angoor Adda was hit by a mortar shell fired from Paktika province of Afghanistan on Monday, official sources said. The sources said that seven mortar shells fired from Paktika landed in Angoor Adda area in South Waziristan. A tribesman, whose identity could not be ascertained, was injured as his house was hit by the shell. The injured was shifted to a private clinic where his condition was stated to be critical.

 
#3: A motorbike bomb targeting a tribal elder allied to the government reportedly killed at least seven people and wounded 12 others in Doaba town of Hangu on Monday. "A remote-controlled device planted on a motorbike parked on the roadside went off when a vehicle owned by Malik Habibullah, a local pro-government elder, passed by," local police chief Sajjad Khan told AFP. He said Habibullah was not in the car when the bomb exploded.

#4: "The two policemen had already defused four bombs planted near a government boys' school in the area, but a fifth bomb exploded while being defused, killing both of them," local police chief Mian Muhammad Saeed told AFP.

#5: One local leader was killed in a drive-by shooting in the country's restive southern province of Uruzgan, 370 km south of the national capital Kabul. "Sayyed Rasoul Khan, a tribal elder and the former administrative chief of Charchino District, was shot dead in provincial capital Tirin Kot city at around 9 a.m. local time. The attackers fled the scene. Police launched investigation into the case," spokesman for the provincial government Abdullah Himat told Xinhua.

#6: two civilians were killed and one was injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire in Kunduz Province, 250 km north of Kabul earlier on Tuesday.

#7: Separately, five Talibans, including a local insurgent leader Mullah Bashir, were killed when Taliban launched an attack on Afghan National Police (ANP) checkpoints in Andar District of eastern Ghazni Province overnight. Two ANP personnel were also wounded in the gunfight that lasted for more than two hours in the province, 125 km south of Kabul, deputy provincial police chief Qasim Desiwall told Xinhua.

#8: Thirty-eight Taliban militants have been killed in security operations across Afghanistan within the last 24 hours, said the country's Interior Ministry Tuesday morning.

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