Summary: Defense contractor KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The announcement of the new KBR contract came just months after the Pentagon rejected the company’s explanation of serious mistakes in Iraq and its proposed improvements.

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Summary: To battle a growing suicide rate, the Army may have to start teaching soldiers how to handle stress from the first day they take their service oath, says Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, which operates 33 schools and training centers at 16 Army installations.

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Summary: The Army is investigating an unexplained and stunning spike in suicides in January 2009. The count is likely to surpass the number of combat deaths during the same period reported by all branches of the armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the fight against terrorism. “In January, we lost more soldiers to suicide than to al-Qaida,” said Paul Rieckhoff, director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

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Summary: Father Bruce Wollmering OSB, monk and priest, died suddenly on Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. … Former student Jeramiah (Jerry) McCarthy files fraud lawsuit against St. John’s Prep School and Abbey for allegedly covering up sexual misconduct by Fr. Bruce Wollmering since the mid-1960s. November 2015 update: Wollmering’s personnel file released as part of settlement in Troy Bramlage civil lawsuit.

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Summary: With the reduction of violence in Iraq following a U.S. troop “surge” and other measures, foreign militants are now flooding into Afghanistan to join Taliban insurgents battling Afghan and international troops, according to Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

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Summary: A classified Pentagon report urges President Barack Obama to shift U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan, de-emphasizing democracy-building and concentrating more on targeting Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuaries inside Pakistan with the aid of Pakistani military forces.

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Summary: Afghanistan-Vietnam parallels: A president, eager to show his toughness, vows to do what it takes to “win.” … The nation that we are supposedly rescuing is no nation at all but rather a deeply divided, semi-failed state with an incompetent, corrupt government held to be illegitimate by a large portion of its population. … The enemy is well accustomed to resisting foreign invaders and can escape into convenient refuges across the border. … There are constraints on America striking those sanctuaries. … Neighboring countries may see a chance to bog America down in a costly war. … There is no easy way out.

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Summary: Provincial election results in northern Iraq could heighten ethnic tensions between Sunnis and Kurds.

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Summary: Three recent U.S. Special Forces operations killed 50 people — the vast majority civilians, Afghan officials say — raising the ire of villagers and President Hamid Karzai. The problem, Afghan officials say, comes when ordinary villagers hear the commotion of Special Forces overnight raids and, fearing robbers or an attack from a hostile tribe, grab their guns and run outside or fire from their homes. U.S. forces then fire back and end up killing civilians.

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