Summary: The number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year has reached at least 500, compared with 521 in all of 2009, according to the independent monitoring site icasualties.org and a tally compiled by Reuters. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 6, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that opinion polls showed support for President Barack Obama and his policies dipping sharply, though he remained personally more popular than his policies. How will those dynamics impact the 2010 election and what do they tell us about President Obama’s personal qualities and leadership style?

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Summary: The latest Associated Press-GfK poll shows President Barack Obama’s marks for handling the 8-year-old Afghanistan war have jumped by double digits — 52 percent now approve — since he capped a three-month strategy review by announcing a big troop increase. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 17, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that the speaker of Iraq’s parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, announced his resignation after a parliamentary session descended into chaos as lawmakers argued about whether to free a journalist who had thrown his shoes at President George W. Bush; that Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview with ABC News, attempted to justify the decision to invade Iraq; that a double-bombing targeting traffic police in Baghdad killed at least 18 people and wounded 52; and that Iraq’s Minister of Science and Technology escaped injury in a car bomb explosion that appeared to be an assassination attempt.

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