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, November 21, 2014

War News for Friday, November 21, 2014


Reported security incidents
#1: A U.S. drone strike killed six suspected militants in northwestern Pakistan, security officials said on Friday, as al Qaeda said two members of the group had been killed in a previous strike. Two missiles struck a house in Mada Khel village of the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border on Thursday night, said a security official based in the area.

#2: A bomb hit a passenger train in the restive southwestern Pakistan province of Balochistan yesterday, derailing it and wounding three passengers, officials said. The bomb in the Dasht region hit the moving Bugti Express about 30km before its final destination of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan. The train was coming from the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

#3: A bomb attached to a motorcycle struck an army vehicle in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing two soldiers, a police official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomb exploded as the army vehicle was passing by on a road on the outskirts of the city of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, said police official Roohullah Bangash.

#4: Afghan security forces have pressed on to clear the militants in restive provinces and killed 30 militants in the latest operations, the country's Interior Ministry said on Friday.

#5: According to recent reports, Pakistani forces fired tens rockets in different parts of Kunar and Nooristan provinces. A police commander in the east of the country said BNA, the attacks had no casualties but inflected financial damages to residents of the area. A tribal elder of Kamdish district of Nooristan province said that two civilians were wounded in the attacks.

Posted by whisker at 3:08 AM

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