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, July 20, 2012

War News for Friday, July 20, 2012


Reported security incidents
#1: A roadside bomb killed five Afghan policemen, including a district police chief, when it ripped through their vehicle in a volatile part of southern Afghanistan, provincial authorities said Friday. "Four police bodyguards along with district police chief, Ahmadullah, were killed in Sarab district in Uruzgan province late last evening," Abdullah Himmat, the provincial governor's spokesman, told AFP. "Initially, the Taliban insurgents attacked a security checkpost. When the district chief along with his men went to respond, his vehicle struck a roadside bomb," provincial police investigative director, Gulab Khan said. All five in the vehicle were killed, Khan said.

#2: At least four people were injured when some unidentified militants fired at shops near paramilitary forces' headquarters in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar on Friday morning, local media reported. The incident happened at about 11:30 a.m. (local time) when two unknown gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire at grocery shops at Frontier road of Peshawar, the capital city of Pakistan's northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

#3: According to local authorities in eastern Kapisa province of Afghanistan, at least three people were killed and four others were injured following an explosion in this province. The officials further added the incident took place in a construction site of water dam in this province. Chief of the provincial council Shaista Jan Ahadi said the professional staff of the construction project was attacked.


DoD: Sgt. Daniel A. Rodriguez

DoD: Sgt. Jose J. Reyes

DoD: Cpl. Joshua R. Ashley


4 comments:

rob said...

can anyone confirm these figures?

According to The Department of Veterans Affairs, as of May 2007, reports in the Gulf War Veterans Information System reveal these startling numbers:

Total U.S. Military Gulf War Deaths: 73,846
Deaths amongst Deployed: 17,847
Deaths amongst Non-Deployed: 55,999

http://www.viewzone2.com/gulfwar.deaths.pdf

whisker said...

No these figures are grossly inaccurate and the sites presenting them are unknown sources. I’ve tracked the war from it’s start and started recording the casualties from the 3rd year and if there were tens of thousands of additional deaths many of them would have come out in articles in local papers we would have picked up upon. As it is I have only a handful of DoD unconfirmed people who have been reported as war deaths. Personally I discredit this.
E

Waninahi said...

This info came from a government document published by the Dept. of Defense. It was on their own DOD website & is titled 'Department of Veterans Affairs
Gulf War Veterans Information System
May 2007 Release Date: June 30, 2007', & a pdf is still available on several sites. It was real, it was on VA's website. 73,846 dead as of 2007.
Data Sources were listed that included ALL government sources. The info can be found on page 8 of the doc, which is 27 pages long.

Waninahi said...

On the vba dot va dot gov archives website one can still see this report if one doubts non-government sources...Government statistics which have repeatedly been caught in bare-faced lies, exposed time and time again, but feel free to believe whomever. The doc explicitly says the report is for Gulf War veterans ONLY. They can deny it all they want.