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, April 4, 2014

War News for Friday, April 04, 2014


Signs of underground ocean found on Saturn moon - [off topic] -- whisker


Reported security incidents
#1: Canadian-born journalist working for the Associated Press was wounded Friday while on assignment in Afghanistan. Kathy Gannon, 60, of Timmins, Ont., was shot twice and the news agency said she was in stable condition and talking to medical personnel. However, Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus, 48, of Germany was killed in the attack in eastern Afghanistan. The news agency said an Afghan police officer opened fire on the pair while they were sitting in their car in the outskirts of Khost city in Tani district. They were in their own car with a freelancer and a driver waiting for the convoy to move when a unit commander walked up yelled “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) and opened fire on them in the back seat with his AK-47. He then surrendered to the other police and was arrested.

#2: A semi-official Iranian news agency is reporting that an al-Qaida-affiliated militant group operating in a lawless frontier area along the Pakistan-Iran border has released Iranian border guards abducted two months ago. Friday´s report by the Fars news agency quotes an unnamed official as saying the guards were handed over to Iranian officials in Pakistan. It did not elaborate.

Posted by whisker at 3:44 AM

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