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


Monday, June 6, 2016

Update for Monday, June 6, 2016

NPR photographer David Gilkey, his translator Zabihullah Tamanna, and their driver, an unidentified Afghan soldier, are killed by a rocket attack on a convoy in Helmand province. [I'm not sure why NPR employs photographers, but apparently they do. -- C]

Member of Parliament Shir Wali Wardak is killed by a bomb planted near his house in Kabul. Five of his bodyguards are injured.

Taliban ambush in Sari Pul kills a district intelligence chief, his deputy, three intelligence officers and two civilians.

Global Witness, a London-based organization, says mining of lapis lazuli supports Taliban in Badakhshan. However, their estimate that Afghanistan's total mineral resources are worth $1 trillion is convincingly rebutted by Forbes columnist Tim Worstall. Most of the resources included in that total could not be extracted profitably.

In Iraq, government forces and allied militias continue their slow advance toward Fallujah.

As civilians continue to try to flee, the Norwegian Refugee Council says IS fighters are shooting them.

Iraqi forces find a mass grave of 400 people north of Fallujah as they work to clear the area.

Sunni tribes, speaking through the Anbar Provincial Council, call for removal of Shiite militias from the battle for Fallujah, accusing them of abuses and atrocities against civilians.

Muqtada al-Sadr calls for an "uprising" as reforms are still not implemented. It is not clear what he means.


Posted by Cervantes at 5:53 AM

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