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, September 21, 2012

War News for Friday, September 21, 2012

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in a undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, September 20th.


Reported security incidents
#1: An anti-Taliban tribal leader and four members of his family were killed by the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, in the province of Uruzgan. The man, Hajji Qadir, two boys and two women were killed in the attack in the district of Dehrawood, said a spokesman for the provincial governor.

#2: Up to five civilians were killed and seven others injured in a roadside bombing in southern Afghan province of Helmand on Friday, a provincial police spokesman said. "The blast occurred when a civilian vehicle was running along a road in Dahsht area of Naway-e-Barakzai area at around 12:30 p.m. local time and the dead included three adult men and two children, " police spokesman Farid Ahmad Farhang told Xinhua.


2 comments:

Dancewater said...

Soldier's email changes House's Defense Chair Position on Afghanistan

Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Sitton knew there was the threat of casualties when he deployed to Afghanistan for his third tour of duty, but he said he was “totally on board with sacrifice for [his] country.”

What he didn’t agree with, though, was his chain of command, who mandated Sitton’s 25-man platoon to take twice-daily patrols through fields littered with explosive devices. The platoon was averaging an amputee a day, Sitton said, and since the patrols didn’t have an end goal, he didn’t see the point of risking such extreme danger.

Sitton was so concerned with his platoon’s safety and morale that in June, he wrote a measured letter to Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., who chairs the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

“I feel myself and my soldiers are being put into unnecessary positions where harm and danger are imminent,” Sitton wrote in an e-mail. ”There is no endstate or purpose for the patrols given to us from our higher chain of command, only that we will be out for a certain time standard.”

“We are walking around aimlessly through grape rows and compounds that are littered with explosives,” he wrote.

On Aug. 2, less than two months after he sent the email, Sitton, 26, was killed by an IED blast. He left behind a wife, a 9-month-old son — and an 81-year-old Congressman with a new perspective on Afghanistan.

Dancewater said...

Bad news:

US to Take Iran Group MEK off terror list

The Obama administration will remove an Iranian militant group formerly allied with Saddam Hussein from the U.S. terrorism list, officials said Friday, describing a move that will infuriate Tehran and end years of high-profile campaigning from the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32512.htm

++++++
they kill Americans and now they are our friends.