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


Saturday, April 10, 2010

War News for Saturday, April 10, 2010

Anniversary of Baghdad's fall marked by protests:

VA laboring under surge of wounded veterans:

Op Ed: Time to sever ties with Afghan president:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb targeting a U.S.-guarded truck convoy wounded a foreign driver in the Doura district of southern Baghdad, police said.

#2: Gunmen using weapons equipped with silencers killed Interior Ministry Brigadier Fadhel Abbas in front of his home in western Baghdad on Thursday, police said.


Babel Prv:
#1: The official in charge of the sahwa (awakening) tribal fighters for the area of Djerf al-Sakhr was shot dead by unidentified gunmen north of al-Hilla city on Saturday, a local police source said. “Unidentified gunmen in an Opel vehicle opened fire on Abdullah Abad Sayhan al-Janabi, the leader of the sahwa forces in Djerf al-Sakhr, (55 km) north of Hilla, killing him instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Qaiyara:
#1: Two police officers and a soldier were killed by a bomb blast in Qaiyara, 330 km (205 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: One civilian was wounded on Friday in two rockets attack in southwestern Kirkuk, a source from the joint coordination center said. “Two rockets were launched on Friday morning (April 9); the first from Wahed Hozayran region and the second from al-Khadraa neighborhood in southwestern Kirkuk, injuring a passing civilian,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: The police found a home-made rocket near a park in central Kirkuk and defused it without incident on Saturday, a source from the city’s Joint Coordination Center (JCC) said.


Mosul:
#1: Two Iraqi policemen and one army soldier were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off south of Mosul city on Saturday, a local security source in Ninewa said. “Two policemen and one Iraqi army serviceman were killed when an IED blast targeted them in al-Qiyara district, (60 km) south of Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The three-man force has received information that gunmen were about to wage a rocket attack on a police station but while they were heading to the site an IED went off, killing them all,” he added.

#2: An Iraqi soldier and a child were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near them south of Mosul city on Saturday, a police source in Ninewa said. “The IED, planted near a water well on the bank of the river frequented by soldiers, went off in Hammam al-Aleel district, (20 km) south of Mosul, killing a soldier,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: Gunmen opened fire on an army patrol and wounded two soldiers in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, authorities said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Two bombs planted near the house of a former police officer killed a woman and wounded four other members of the same family in Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

#2: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol on Thursday injured two police officers in central Ramadi, 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

#3: Two roadside bombs injured a civilian in central Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, on Thursday, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Militants launched a pre-dawn attack on an Indian road construction camp in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, burning vehicles and equipment and sending the crew fleeing, authorities said. No deaths or injuries were reported in the attack in Khost province's Domanda district, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Suspected Taliban, who are active in the mountainous eastern region bordering Pakistan, descended on the camp around 2 a.m.

#2: Elsewhere, two members of a nomadic tribe were killed by a roadside bomb Friday in the southern province of Kandahar, the ministry said. No details were given.

#3: At least 60 people were killed and more than 40 injured in northwest Pakistan's Khyber tribal agency on Saturday as jet fighters targeted a local Jirga (assembly), local TV channel reported. The killed were suspected militants that were active in the area bordering Afghanistan, the private TV GEO News reported.

#4: New Zealand soldiers serving in Afghanistan have come under enemy fire for the second time in five months after they were attacked by insurgents on Friday, the New Zealand Defence Force says. A group using small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a combined New Zealand and US patrol from the New Zealand provincial reconstruction team in the northeast of Bamyan province about 9.20pm NZT. There were no casualties among the New Zealand and American troops, and it is believed no casualties among the attackers, joint forces commander Air Vice Marshall Peter Stockwell says.


DoD: Maj. Randell D. Voas

DoD: Senior Master Sgt. James B. Lackey

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