Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
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Summary: Unanticipated but predictable consequences of the Iraq war — With sectarian tensions reemerging after the departure of U.S. troops in December 2011, Iraq continues its almost inevitable slide to sectarian civil war as a legacy of the U.S. invasion in March 2003.


May 27th, 2013

Summary: More than 70 people were killed in a wave of bombings in markets in Shi’ite neighborhoods across Baghdad in worsening sectarian violence in Iraq. More than 700 people were killed in attacks in April 2013, the highest monthly toll in nearly five years.



Summary: Chuck Hagel is the right choice for Secretary of Defense. The U.S. Senate should confirm Sen. Hagel without further delay to head the Department of Defense.



Summary: Chuck Hagel is the right choice for Secretary of Defense. President Barack Obama should nominate Sen. Hagel without delay.


Dec 2nd, 2012

Summary: Today marks the sixth anniversay of the day Minnesota state Rep. John Kriesel nearly died when an improvised explosive device detonated under the Humvee he was riding during security operations in Fallujah, Iraq. Staff Sgt. Kriesel lost both his legs in the blast that killed two of his best friends, Sgt. Bryan McDonough and Sgt. Corey Rystad, on December 2, 2006.



Summary: A wave of bombings targeting Shiites in Iraq killed 72 people, further deepening sectarian tensions that reemerged with the departure of the last American troops in mid-December and portending a slow slide to sectarian war as a legacy of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003.



Summary: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared a new dawn as Iraq celebrated the departure of American troops under a Bush-era U.S.-Iraqi status-of-forces agreement. Television stations aligned with Sunni and Shiite extremist groups have dubbed “Iraq Day” the “Day of Defeating the Occupier,” the “Day of Fullfillment,” or the “Day of Evacuation.”



Summary: President Barack Obama declared an end to U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, announcing that all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 23, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Michele Bachmann had asked the Minnesota Secretary of State to remove her name from the publicly available voter registration records under a legal provision designed to protect past or potential victims of domestic abuse, and commented that the real problem with Michele Bachmann is not her self-centeredness, her unresponsiveness to the needs of her constituents, her meager legislative accomplishments, or even her voting record, but her delusion-like paranoia, her shameless conspiracy-peddling, and her incessant fear-mongering.



Summary: U.S. officials say they are certain the bizarre assassination plot against the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Jubeir, was real; however, some analysts say it is unlikely the Iranian government would be involved in such a tangled plot. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 13, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a bold show of strength in Lebanon, vowing before thousands of Hezbollah supporters in Beirut that U.S. and Israeli power in the Middle East would soon be eclipsed.



Summary: Attacks aimed at Iraqi police, including two in which assailants slammed explosives-packed cars into police stations, killed 25 people and maimed dozens in the worst violence in Baghdad since August 2011. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 12, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that members of Afghanistan’s new peace council said releasing Taliban figures detained at Guantanamo Bay and scratching scores of others off the U.N. sanctions list would jump-start peace talks aimed at ending the then 9-year-old war.