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, December 21, 2007

War News for Friday, December 21, 2007

Photo: British soldiers secure the scene of a bomb attack east of Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, December 21, 2007. A suspected roadside bomb exploded next to a British military armoured vehicle east of Basra International Airport, where British forces in Iraq are based, but there were no casualties from the blast, a British military official said.REUTERS/Atef Hassan (IRAQ)


Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Around 1 p.m. a suicide car bomb targeted Al Rasheed police station in Al Yousifiyah, killing four policemen and one civilian and injuring seven policemen and one civilian.

#2: Police found three bodies in Baghdad; one in Doura, Kasra and Camp Sara.


Diyala Prv:
Balad Ruz:
#1: a gunman attacked a family in a Shiite section of volatile Diyala province near Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing two men and kidnapping a third, police said.

#2: Gunmen killed three men in Baladrouz market today.

Baquba:
#1: Just east of Baqouba, the capital of Diyala, two men standing in front of their house were killed by unknown armed men.

#2: Gunmen killed two members of an anti-al Qaeda force and a policeman late on Thursday when they attacked a joint patrol of police and members of a local neighbourhood watch in the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Al Salam:
#1: A mortar shell slammed into Al Salam town (about 25 Kilometers north of Baquba) and hit a house near the town's police station killing one child and injuring two others.


Basra:
#1: A suspected roadside bomb exploded next to a British military armoured vehicle east of Basra International Airport, where British forces in Iraq are based, but there were no casualties from the blast, a British military official said.


Balad:
#1: One mortar shell landed in Balad city causing damages to one shop.


Al Anbar Prv:
Ramadi:
#1: Hundreds of people in al-Anbar staged a demonstration in front of a U.S. forces headquarters north of Ramadi on Thursday to protest the killing of an Iraqi policeman stabbed by a U.S. soldier in a quarrel on Wednesday. No comment was made by the U.S. army on the incident nor reaction to the angry protests by the local residents in Ramadi.




Afghanistan:
#1: An accidental blast in eastern Afghanistan killed two children and wounded another, an official said Friday. The blast happened after children brought an old explosive ordnance inside a house in Bati Kot district of Nangarhar province on Thursday and were playing with it, said Ghafour Khan, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.

#2: At least 50 people were killed Friday in a suicide bombing at a mosque in northwest Pakistan targeting a former interior minister and close ally of President Pervez Musharraf. The bomber blew himself up in a crowded mosque at the residential compound of Aftab Sherpao, an outspoken opponent of Islamic militancy who until last month was the top civilian anti-terrorism official. Sherpao was reportedly unhurt in the attack. District police chief Feroz Shah told AFP that at least 50 people had been killed. Provincial health minister Syed Kamal Shah put the death toll at 54, and said more than 100 people were injured.


Casualty Reports:

Marine Cpl. Eric Morante, 23, can see heat waves rising from the six-lane highway below the overpass bridge his squad uses as an observation post near the town of Saqlawiya, Iraq. "I never heard the blast. ... Everything was dark. I heard some Marines crying," Eric recalls. "It was like a dream." On this day, April 20, 2007, Eric and his squad members entered life among the wounded and became a statistic in a war. When he looks down at his legs, he sees the right one is shredded and bent into an unnatural L-shape. Doctors there put the jigsaw puzzle of his left hand and wrist together with 10 titanium pins. But he still has a crushed cheek and cracked front teeth.

Lance Cpl. Brandon "Little" Mendez, 20, who'd been looking out on the barricaded on-ramp to the bridge, has lost his left arm below the elbow.

Sergeant Wyatt Goettle , 25, was injured in April 2006. He was driving a Husky, it's a vehicle that hits the roads in Iraq looking for bombs or IEDs.

Lt. David A. Wilson, 24, a West Point and 2001 Cathedral Prep graduate, is recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. was was seriously wounded there Dec. 8 when he was hit by small-arms fire. According to a posting by David Wilson's parents on an Internet message board, the officer was seriously wounded on Dec. 8 in Balad, which is about 50 miles north of Baghdad. His parents wrote on the Web site that David Wilson's wounds have been described by doctors as serious, but not life-threatening.On the message board, David Wilson's parents summarized the nature of his wounds by writing that "there are both internal organs and bones involved."The officer had been on a ventilator, but is now breathing on his own, his parents wrote.

Airman 1st Class Michael Brady--In his first deployment to Iraq, the videographer was stationed at Balad Air Base, where he was assigned to work with the Army. During a mission Oct. 12, a sniper shot Brady, leaving him with a serious neck wound. Life-saving measures included a tracheotomy, which Brady endured for less than two weeks. At the time, doctors said he likely would recover the ability to speak. Tuesday, his voice sounded completely normal. “I still have a little numbness in my face,” he said, and he also experiences random pain, likely as the nerves slowly heal. “Other than that, it's really just scars. I don't have any physical problems.”

Army Pvt. James Browning is being treated for wounds, traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder at Fort Hood, Texas. Simmons said James was involved in a firefight on Feb. 19 in which only he and one other soldier in their 12-member unit survived.

Army specialist L.J. Montelli, 20, is recovering from from serious head and lung injuries sustained in Iraq. On Dec. 5, while riding in a convoy, L.J. felt an explosion. “He was launched,” Lisa said. “There was a second explosion that burned the inside of his lungs and caused massive head trauma.

Pte Jamie Cooper, 19, from Bristol, is still undergoing rehabilitation after being hit by shrapnel in Basra. Since his regiment, the Royal Green Jackets, came under mortar attack in Basra in November 2006, Pte Cooper has suffered further setbacks after catching a series of infections at Birmingham's Selly Oak hospital.

Wesley Barrientos, 23, was wounded in Iraq Thursday morning when he and some other soldiers were riding in a humvee. Friends said both of Barrientos’ legs were amputated.He is set to be transferred to Germany, where he will undergo a very long rehabilitation.

Sgt. Ivan Castellon--Last July, Castellon took an explosive hit in Iraq that knocked out part of his sight. Castellon's tank was hit by an explosive device and he has since been in treatment for a traumatic brain injury. The explosion took his left eye. "I didn't feel something was right," he said. "I started climbing back in the tank when all of a sudden I heard the big ball of fire and a big boom, and I can't remember too much after that."


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