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


Wednesday, July 14, 2010

War News for Wednesday, July 14, 2010

KTAR News is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier in a hospital in Germany on some unreported date early this week. Chris Moon died from an IED blast in an unreported location in Afghanistan sometime last week.

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF Marine from small arms fire/gunshot wounds in the Sangin district, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Tuesday, July 13th. Here's the ISAF statement.

The DoD is reporting a new death unreported by the military. Pfc. Nathaniel D. Garvin died from a non-combat related incident at FOB Frontenac, Kandahar province, Afghanistan on Monday, July 12th.

NATO is reporting the deaths of four ISAF soldiers in a roadside bombing in an unidentified location in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, July 14th. News reports these to be American soldiers.

NATO is reporting the death of another ISAF soldier from small arms fire in an unidentified location in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, July 14th.

NATO is reporting the deaths of three ISAF soldiers from an attack in an undisclosed in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, July 14th. See below for details.


Commander in Iraq Warns of Attacks on U.S. Bases

Turkey to form professional army to fight rebels

Iraq oil revenues 95% of state income: minister

U.S. May Label Pakistan Militants as Terrorists

10 police killed in gunmen attacks on Yemeni intelligence HQ


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In southern Baghdad, a civilian was injured when a bomb exploded in his car in southern Baghdad, witnesses told the German Press Agency dpa.

#2: Journalist Ameer Ali al-Hasoon was able to escape an assassination attempt in Baghdad, an advocate of press freedom said on Wednesday. “Al-Hasoon was driving in al-Harthiya neighborhood yesterday evening when he was intercepted by a car with two gunmen inside it,” the source said. He explained that the gunmen left their car and directed guns with silencers toward al-Hasoon. “The journalist hit the gasoline when he saw the gunmen, and was miraculously able to escape,” the source noted.


Basra:
#1: A rocket attack has rocked a US military base located inside Basra International Airport in southern Iraq as the number of possible casualties remains unknown. The rocket landed in the American base inside Iraq's second largest airport on Tuesday, the Iranian state news agency IRIB reported, quoted an Iraqi police source as saying on condition of anonymity. The official, however, declined comment on the number of casualties left by the attack in Basra — which is located nearly 550 kilometers to the south of Baghdad.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: Militants blew up a building used by the Iraqi army in the city of Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Four policemen were injured in a roadside bombing in the northern city of Kirkuk, according to police. A police convoy appeared to be the target.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Iraqi officials say militants have attacked the house of a member of a moderate Sunni Muslim sect in the country's west, killing two women and a six-year-old child in their sleep. Police and hospital officials say they attackers surrounded the house of Rahal Hussein, a member of the Sufi sect, just after midnight on Tuesday in a village near the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. The militants sprayed the house with machinegun fire and threw hand grenades inside, killing the sleeping women and child. The officials say six people were also wounded. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak the media



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A car bomb and gunfight outside the headquarters of an elite police force killed three U.S. troops and five Afghan civilians in the southern city of Kandahar, officials said Wednesday.
A suicide attacker slammed a car bomb into the entrance of the compound, then insurgents opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, a NATO statement said. A combined force of international troops and police kept the attackers from entering the compound and eventually fought them off, but three American troops died along with five civilian workers, NATO said. The dead civilians included three Afghan translators and two security guards, Kandahar provincial police chief Sardar Mohammad Zazai said.

#2: An Afghan police officer also died in the late Tuesday night attack on the compound, which houses the elite Afghan National Civil Order Police, a provincial spokesman said.

#3: In other attacks around the country, nine Afghan civilians died in the south when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the volatile district of Marjah in Helmand province, the Ministry of Interior said.

#4: Another homemade bomb killed two security guards traveling on a road in eastern Paktika province.

#5: Two suspected Taliban also died in Helmand's Lashkar Gar district when the roadside bomb they were trying to plant exploded prematurely, the ministry said.

#6: A NATO oil tanker and five other vehicles got fire after firing by unknown miscreants at main GT Road on Tuesday evening. The tanker was carrying fuel to Afghanistan for NATO forces when it was fired upon by militants near Naushera. The tanker, owned by a private contractor, caught fire after the incident that later grabbed five more vehicles. The fire was so severe that it also damaged nearby buildings and affected the power supply in the area. Traffic was suspended for hours on GT Road following the incident as police and other law enforcement agencies’ personnel cordoned off the area. No casualty was reported in the incident.

#7: Pakistani warplanes killed 24 militants and destroyed five of their hideouts in the northwestern Orakzai tribal region, security officials said. There was no independent verification of casualties and militants often dispute the military's accounts.

#8: Unidentified men on a motorbike gunned down a central leader of the Baluchistan Nationalist Party, Habib Jalib, in a drive-by shooting in Quetta, the provincial capital of southwestern Baluchistan province. Baluch nationalists have for decades campaigned for greater autonomy and control of Baluchistan, and separatist guerrillas have also waged a low-key insurgency there.

#9: A roadside bomb killed a 10-year-old boy in Khuzdar district, about 337 km (210 miles) southeast of Quetta, police said


DoD: Staff Sgt. Christopher J. Antonik

DoD: Lance Cpl. Daniel G. Raney

DoD: Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Roads

DoD: Spc. Carlos J. Negron

DoD: Pfc. Nathaniel D. Garvin

DoD: Sgt. Shaun M. Mittler

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

'



I'm surprised that the site didn't close sooner. I figured that it would shut down as soon as it became apparent that the US would be successful in putting down the insurgency and establishing a stable government.

As Iraq continues to improve and eventually prosper with a democratic government and a capitalistic economic system, it becomes harder and harder to justify your calls for an immediate pullout knowing full well that such a withdrawal would lead to the return of chaos that would eventually engulf the entire Mid East.

And as peace and prosperity return after decades of suffering under SoDamn Insane, its sad that you will continue to call for an immediate withdrawal from A'stan again knowing full well the death and destruction that such a withdrawal would precipitate.

Two or three years from now, when A'stan stabilizes with a democratic, capitalistic governing system, it will be time to close the site completely.


The Wiz

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Anonymous said...

This is Iraq Today:

sky-rocketing cancer and sky high birth defects - corruption way up, and so is infant mortality. A country has been ruined, with millions of refugees and internally displaced people.

Hundreds of thousands of children have had their heads bashed to bits, their arms and legs torn off, their nervous systems shattered, and millions are orphans. We destroyed their future.

This massive evil by the US government and the American people who supported it will likely go unpunished.

But in my eyes, they are worthless pieces of shit not worthy of licking up dog shit off the sidewalk.

Anonymous said...

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, July 14
14 Jul 2010 19:17:43 GMT
Source: Reuters
July 14 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1900 GMT on Wednesday.

*indicates a new or updated item.

* MOSUL - A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol, wounding one soldier, in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

* BAGHDAD - A bomb attached to a vehicle killed a senior appeal court judge in the western Baghdad district of Yarmouk, an Interior Ministry source said.

* BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb exploded in the Adil district of western Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding four others, an Interior Ministry source said.

* BAGHDAD - Armed men threw a hand grenade at a police security checkpoint in the Ghazaliya district of western Baghdad, wounding three people, including two policemen, an Interior Ministry source said.

* BAGHDAD - A hand grenade thrown at a security checkpoint in the Saidiya district of southern Baghdad wounded two policemen and one other person, an Interior Ministry source said.

* BAGHDAD - Gunmen opened fire on a security checkpoint in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, wounding three people, including two policemen, an Interior Ministry source said.

* BAGHDAD - A bomb attached to a car in the Bayaa district of southwest Baghdad wounded a member of the Sahwa, or Sons of Iraq, former insurgents who turned against al Qaeda, an Interior Ministry source said.

* BAGHDAD - A bomb attached to a car wounded a civil servant in the Binoog district of northern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

FALLUJA - Gunmen stormed the house of a Sufi Muslim cleric killing four people and wounding at least six others, in a town near Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL - A roadside bomb wounded a local private security contractor and three guards when it hit their convoy in western Mosul, police said.

MOSUL - Gunmen shot dead a man in western Mosul, police said.

MOSUL - At least three militants were killed during a military raid in southern Mosul, police said.

MOSUL - A bomb blew up in a parking lot and wounded two people in southern Mosul, police said.

KIRKUK - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded four policemen in central Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

ABU GHRAIB - Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and four others were wounded when attackers blew up a house used as a headquarters for the army in Abu Ghraib on the western outskirts of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A bomb attached to a police car wounded the driver and a passer-by in the Doura district of southern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen using weapons equipped with silencers shot dead a university professor, Adnan Makki, at his home in al-Qadissiya district of southwestern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A bomb attached to a car wounded the driver and a passenger in the New Baghdad district of eastern Baghdad on Tuesday evening, police said.

(Compiled by Baghdad newsroom)

Observer said...

The wiz seems to be having some sort of fugue.

How many dead yanks today in afghanistan?
America's longest war ever. What have you been doing there for ten years, with casualties spiking only now?

And Iraq will be Iraq, no matter what the Americans want it to be.

Observer said...

And why does the Wiz think that this site is closed?
is he delusional?
Or was he trying to e-mail his fellow astro-turfer and hacker, pete from texas, and posted here in error?

Anonymous said...

.


Geez Observor, ya might wanna invest in some remedial reading classes. I never said the was closed. I said I expected it to close a while back.

Perhaps your inability to read is an indication of your lack of deductive abilities and explains why you don't understand the complexities of world politics.


The Wiz
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Cervantes said...

Wiz is living in an alternate universe, it appears. Wishing doesn't make it so . . .

Anonymous said...

True.. but if you play with it properly you can get pretty close. Sometimes better.