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


Friday, January 3, 2014

War News for Friday, January 03, 2014


Pakistani TV reporter becomes first journalist killed in 2013

Qaeda-Aligned Militants Threaten Key Iraqi Cities

NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption


Reported security incidents
#1: Gunmen in Afghanistan have killed a senior female official in the western city of Herat, police say. She was shot in the head by two unknown attackers on a motorbike as she left her office in the city centre and died at the scene.

#2: Five Afghan civilians were killed while 18 others were wounded Thursday in an explosion in the country’s eastern province of Logar, authorities said. An improvised explosive device (IED) attached to a motorcycle was detonated around 4 p.m. local time in Baraki Barak district bazaar.


DoD: Sgt. Jacob M. Hess

Posted by whisker at 4:26 AM

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