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, April 16, 2007

In Memory of Marla Ruzicka

In Memory: Marla Ruzicka

Marla was killed by suicide bomber on airport road in Baghdad two years ago today. Marla was working to bring attention to the Iraqi civilians killed in this war. She was working to bring them some compensation for their losses, by pressuring the US government officials. She felt that they had a legal and moral responsibility to compensate the families of civilians killed or injured by military conflicts. She founded an organization called CIVIC (Campaign For Innocent Victims in Conflict) to achieve this goal.

She was a good person, and she inspired me. This photo came from Civic's website.

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