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


Thursday, April 7, 2011

War News for Thursday, April 07, 2011

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by the military. Spc. Gary L. Nelson III died from a non-combat related incident in Mosul, Iraq on Tuesday, April 5th.

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from a friendly fire incident in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, April 6th.


Lack of mine maps hampers demining efforts in Iraq

Total Iraqi Oil Reserves Now Around 173 Billion Bbl: Shahristani

Gates: Some US troops may stay if Iraq wants


Reported security incidents


Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Six Afghan security personnel and four Taliban fighters were killed Thursday in a multipronged assault on a police training site in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, officials said. A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-filled vest at the gate of the training site on the eastern outskirts of the provincial capital, also called Kandahar, said a police official at the scene. Zalmai Ayoubi, spokesman for the provincial governor, said two other militants occupied an empty adjacent building under construction and began firing on the police compound. As security personnel attempted to enter the building, a fourth militant detonated an explosives-filled ambulance close to the soldiers and policemen who had surrounded the building, Ayoubi said.

#2: Finnish troops came under fire in the Qush Tepal region in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday evening, but according to a statement by the Finnish Defence Forces no one was injured during the attack. The Finnish soldiers came under small arms fire, which they returned.

#3: A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into the house of a senior police officer in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing at least one man and wounding four people, including two children, police said.


DoD: Staff Sgt. Quadi S. Hudgins

DoD: Sgt. Christian A. S. Garcia

DoD: Spc. Gary L. Nelson III

0 comments: