Summary: A U.N. Security Council emergency session amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula ended after more than eight hours without an agreement. North Korea warned of a “catastrophe” if South Korea went ahead with military live-fire drills on Yeonpyeong Island. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 20, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Lt. Col. Thomas B. Gukeisen, who commands 600 soldiers at Forward Operating Base Altimur in Logar province, Afghanistan, has achieved success operating by his own innovative ideas about counterinsurgency warfare.
Summary: Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
warned North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il — whom he labeled the “bad guy” — that the United States’ commitment to defend South Korea was “unquestioned” as the Communist state’s military fired shells across the disputed sea border. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 8, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that a suicide car bomb in Baghdad flattened a court building and an explosives-rigged ambulance blew down walls like dominos near the Finance Ministry in a wave of coordinated attacks that targeted high-profile symbols of Iraqi authority, killing at least 127 people and wounding more than 500.