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 28, 2011

War News for Thursday, April 28, 2011

Update: NATO has raised the number from six to eight ISAF soldiers killed from a shooting incident in Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday, April 27th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, April 27th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, April 27th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen using silenced pistols shot dead a senior Iraqi general in Baghdad on Thursday, an official said, the latest in a spate of assassinations of top military and civilian officials. The killing of Brigadier General Mohammed Alaa Jassim was the fourth of a senior Iraqi official in the past week, with at least three others having narrowly escaped death in that time. Jassim, the deputy commander of the Iraqi air force's Al-Muthanna base in central Baghdad, was in his car on a busy thoroughfare in the Ghazaliyah neighbourhood in the capital's west when he was killed, an interior ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

#2: “An explosive charge, planted on al-Mashtal Bridge in eastern Baghdad’s ‘New Baghdad’ district, blew off on Wednesday, to injure 4 persons, along with causing damage to a number of civilian cars,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: He said that another explosive charge, stuck to a car, belonging to an employee of Baghdad’s National Theatre, blew off inside the theatre’s garage, wounding 2 of its security protection elements, who were driven to a nearby hospital for treatment.

#4: “An explosive charge blew up in New Baghdad district, aimed at a police patrol, wounding 6 persons, including 4 policemen and 2 civilians,

#5: whilst another explosive charge blew off in southern Baghdad’s Zayouna district, wounding 5 people,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq.

#6: A civilian driver was killed on Thursday by a sticky bomb blast in Baghdad, a security source said.

"A bomb, stuck to a truck, went off Thursday morning (April 28) in al-Doura region, killing the driver on the spot," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kirkuk:
#1: Police forces defused on Wednesday six bombs targeting oil establishments in the city, a security source said. “Al-Dabs police forces found today six bombs, three of them planted near oil wells, while the rest left on the pipelines,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The forces defused them without damage,” he added.


Mosul:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, killing one policeman, in Hammam al-Alil, 20 km (12 miles) south of Mosul, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: An armed man has been killed and another was detained, when they tried to attack a checkpoint west of Ramadi, the center of west Iraq’s Anbar Province on Wednesday, an Anbar police source said. “Two armed men opened fire on a police checkpoint on the main highway at km-125, west of Ramadi,” the police source said. He said that the police opened fire on both men, killing one of them, whilst the other handed himself over to the security forces, pointing out that “both men were uncovered to have been demanded by the judiciary, for their involvement in violence acts against civilians and security forces in the Province.”



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Taliban militants detonated a roadside bomb in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Thursday, killing four members of the navy, the third attack on the navy in less than a week. A motorcyclist was also killed in the blast targeted at a navy bus, while at least five people were wounded, navy spokesman Commander Salman Ali and a hospital official said.

#2: New Zealand soldiers in Afghanistan have been attacked while on patrol in north eastern Bamyan province on Thursday. Defence says a patrol from the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team was struck by an improvised explosive device. The New Zealanders were in a light armoured vehicle or LAV and were not hurt. The vehicle suffered some damage but can be recovered.


DoD: Lance Cpl. Joe M. Jackson

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