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, September 3, 2010

War News for Friday, September 03, 2010

Corruption probe ruffles US-Afghan relations

Poland wants to start pulling troops out of Afghanistan


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: “A bomb, stuck to the car of Colonel Mohammad Riyadh, went off late Thursday (Sept. 2) in al-Amal al-Shaabi street in al-Ameriya region, western Baghdad, killing his brother and wounding him, who was rushed to al-Yarmouk hospital for treatment,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: “An explosive charge went off targeting an army vehicle patrol in al-Khadraa neighborhood, western Baghdad, injuring three soldiers and damaging the vehicle,” the same source said.

#3: Gunmen shot dead Jameel Shihab Ahmed, head of administrative affairs in the Higher Education Ministry, in Baghdad's western district of Amiriya, police said.


Nomaniya:
#1: A U.S. military vehicle hit a civilian car west of Kut city killing three civilians and wounding one, a local security source said on Thursday. “The accident occurred in central al-Noamaniya district, west of Kut,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kirkuk:
#1: A member of the Sahwa, or Awakening Councils, was shot dead while staffing a checkpoint outside Kirkuk, located 250 kilometres north of the capital Baghdad. The gunmen drove past the checkpoint late Thursday, fired shots from a moving vehicle, and then fled the scene, a police official said.


Mosul:
#1: Two gunmen shot dead a civilian in a cemetery in western Mosul city on Thursday, according to a local police source in Ninewa. “Two gunmen took a civilian to the Wadi Akkab cemetery in western Mosul and opened fire on him, killing him instantly and escaping to an unknown place,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Police say a roadside bomb has killed a police officer and wounded three others in northwest Pakistan. Police official Shafiullah Khan said the bomb was detonated by remote control Friday as officers patrolled in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where floods have affected millions of people in recent weeks.

#2-3: Explosions killed at least 10 members of Pakistan's minority religious communities on Friday, driving up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country already battered by massive flooding. A blast at a Shiite procession killed at least nine people in the southwestern city of Quetta at a rally calling for solidarity with Palestinians. Qazi Abdul Wahid, a senior police official, said at least 40 people were wounded. Some Shiite youths fired shots in the air shortly after the blast, and Wahid said officers were trying to control the situation. Earlier in the day, a suicide attack on a mosque belonging to the minority Ahmadi sect killed at least one person and wounded several others in the northwest Pakistani town of Mardan.

#3: An Afghan parliamentary candidate and a civilian were wounded in a grenade attack at the governor's compound in southeastern Ghazni city on Thursday, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said


DoD: Lance Cpl. Christopher B. Rodgers

DoD: 2nd Lt. Mark A. Noziska

DoD: Staff Sgt. Casey J. Grochowiak

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