Summary: With about 500 fatalities, 2010 was the deadliest year yet for U.S. troops in the nine-year Afghanistan war, far exceeding the 300 casualties in 2009. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 1, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan doubled in 2009 compared with the previous year, while U.S. deaths in Iraq dropped by half as troops largely remained on bases and the United States started preparing to withdraw from that country by the end of 2011.

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Summary: The 101st Airborne Division is seeing its worst casualties in a decade as the U.S. surge in Afghanistan turns 2010 into the deadliest year of the war for the NATO coalition. Meanwhile, twin suicide bombings rocked a government compound in Iraq’s western city of Ramadi, killing 17 people and wounding more than 50. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 27, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Pat Forte fought back courageously after suffering a setback around Easter 2009 with a relapse of thymic carcinoid, sustained by his strong Christian faith, the prayers and support of friends, and excellent medical care at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center.

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Summary: A five-page unclassified summary of the 2010 White House review of Afghanistan war strategy says U.S. and NATO forces had made “notable operational gains,” halting the Taliban’s momentum in many areas and disrupting al-Qaida. But it stressed the gains were fragile and reversible and that major challenges remained. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 17, 2009, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), compiled from U.S. Department of Defense News Releases.

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Summary: As President Obama prepares to release a review of American strategy in Afghanistan that will claim progress in the nine-year-old war there, two new classified National Intelligence Estimates offer a more negative assessment and say there is a limited chance of success unless Pakistan hunts down insurgents operating from havens on its Afghan border. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 15, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning project of the St. Petersburg Times to find the truth in American politics, announced its “Lie of the Year” contest to find the most significant political falsehood of 2009, with U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann among the eight nominees.

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Summary: Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, died unexpectedly at the age of 69 following surgery for a tear in his aorta. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 14, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that computer technicians found 22 million missing White House e-mails from the administration of President George W. Bush. The Bush White House e-mail archiving problems became publicly known in 2006, when federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald disclosed the irregularities during his criminal investigation of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

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Summary: A NATO airstrike killed at least 25 suspected insurgents in eastern Afghanistan and a Taliban suicide attack killed six American troops in southern Afghanistan while other violence left 22 civilians dead in a wave of attacks days before President Obama issues his 2010 review of U.S. strategy in the Afghanistan war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 13, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that analysts believed the nuclear threat from North Korea and Iran had become more serious than it had been the year before.

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Summary: The New York Times reports that confidential diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks offers a fresh sense of the pervasive nature of predatory corruption in Afghanistan, the overwhelming scale of the corruption, and the serious challenge it poses to American officials who have made shoring up support for the Afghan government a cornerstone of America’s counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, where bribery, extortion, and embezzlement are the norm. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 2, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that President Barack Obama held an uncertain hand in his high-stakes gamble in the fight against Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with weak partners in both countries, doubts about the speed of building up Afghan security forces, and allies reluctant to commit themselves wholeheartedly to the fight.

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Summary: The bodies of six soldiers of the 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky., killed by an Afghan border policeman in an apparent fragging in Afghanistan, have returned to U.S. soil at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 1, 2009, Aubrey Immelman featured President Barack Obama’s address to the nation to outline his strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Immelman also provided his weekly summary of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: The United States has now been fighting in Afghanistan longer than the Soviet Union, whose occupation lasted nine years and 50 days before the USSR retreated in defeat on Feb. 15, 1989. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 29, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that, according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report, Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision in December 2001 not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force. The report affixed a measure of blame for the state of the Afghanistan war today on military leaders under former president George W. Bush, specifically Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary and his top military commander, Gen. Tommy Franks.

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Summary: WikiLeaks’ cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at backroom bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders, and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 28, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that many soldiers and policy makers believe the conflict in Afghanistan may be harder and more intractable than the war in Iraq.

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