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


Thursday, April 24, 2014

War News for Thursday, April 24, 2014


Reported security incidents
#1: An Afghan security guard opened fire on a group of foreign doctors at a Kabul hospital on Thursday morning, killing three American physicians and wounding a U.S. nurse, officials said. The shooting at Cure International Hospital in western Kabul was the latest in a string of deadly attacks on foreign civilians in the Afghan capital this year.

#2: Authorities say four police officers have been killed in an attack in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar. A statement from the Kandahar governor’s office accused Taliban insurgents of being responsible for the attack on a checkpoint late April 22 in the Ghorak district. The statement said one officer had been injured and three others were missing after the attack, likely taken hostage.

#3: A bombing in southern Pakistan killed a police officer known for his anti-militant campaigns and three other people on Thursday.

#4: army officials said the Pakistani air force carried out airstrikes against insurgents in a northwestern tribal region, killing 16 militants. The airstrikes pounded two militant hideouts in a remote area of Tirah Valley in the Khyber tribal region near the Afghan border, three military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.

#5: Units of Afghan national army raided Taliban hideouts and killed eight insurgents, including two commanders in the southern Ghazni province on Thursday, an army spokesman Nazif Sultani said. "Units of the national army launched cleanup operations in Andar district of Ghazni province early today morning and so far eight rebels, including two Taliban commanders.

#6: Two militants including a commander were killed as aircrafts stormed their hideout in Nari district of the eastern Kunar province, 185 km east of Kabul late Wednesday night, provincial police chief Abdul Habib Sayedkhili said Thursday. "Acting upon intelligence report the aircrafts targeted a Taliban hideout in Zalai village of Narai district at 11:00 p.m. local time Wednesday, killing Taliban commander Mullah Ayub along with his bodyguard," Sayedkhili told Xinhua.

Posted by whisker at 5:01 AM

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