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


Sunday, March 15, 2015

Update for Sunday, March 15, 2015

Dept. of "Who could have predicted?" Plans for U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan are (apparently) scrapped.


(Reuters) - The United States has abandoned plans to cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 5,500 by year's end, the Associated Press reported on Saturday, but a senior U.S. official told Reuters no decision has been made. Many of the 9,800 U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan would probably remain well into next year, although no final decision on numbers had been made yet, AP reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

The headline on this story could be a bit misleading, at least some people have misinterpreted it: Afghanistan gave CIA money to al Qaeda for diplomat's ransom. But, the story is interesting enough. It seems that the CIA regularly delivered cash to Hamid Karzai, to buy the support of warlords and politicians, that sort of thing. You know, democracy! Karzai used $1 million of it as part of a $5 million ransom. We know about this because of the trial of a Pakistani currently on trial in New York for plotting to bomb a shopping center in England. (You can't make this stuff up.) The evidence comes from the loot the Navy SEALS got from Osama bin Laden's hideout. It seems bin Laden was afraid the CIA money might be poisoned or something.




Posted by Cervantes at 5:23 AM

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