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, August 1, 2014

War News for Friday, August 1st, 2014


 40pc of weapons sent to Afghanistan are unaccounted for

Army deployment starts in Islamabad

Nearly half of identified drone strike victims in Pakistan are civilians: report


Reported security incidents
#1: The two militants were killed during an operation launched by army in Keran sector of Kupwara district on Thursday following a specific input about their movement in the area, the spokesman said. He said the militants were trying to exfiltrate from the Valley to PoK.

#2: Some unknown gunmen killed three persons including a woman in the Balochistan district on Friday here, Geo News reported. Levies Force said that the firing incident occurred at Join in Tehsil Prom, where unknown armed motorbike riders barged into a house and opened indiscriminate firing resulting in the death of three persons including a woman, while the assailants after the firing escaped from the scene.

#3: An armed trespasser has been killed on the Tajik-Afghan border in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region. According to the press center of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), officers from SCNS’s office in GBAO jointly with border guards on a routine patrol spotted a trespasser who was illegally crossing the border river in the Rushan district late Thursday (July 31). When security officers and border guards tried to detain the trespasser, the last opened fire at them.  The trespasser was reportedly killed by return fire.

#4: Unknown gunmen shot dead district mayor for Mohammad Agha in eastern Logar province of Afghanistan, local officials said. Provincial governor spokesman, Din Mohammad Darwish, said the incident took place late Thursday night after a group of gunmen attacked the residence of Mohammad Agha district mayor Saifullah.

Posted by whisker at 5:07 AM

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