Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, compiled from U.S. Department of Defense news releases and iCasualties.org. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 25, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the political movement of Iraq’s best-known anti-American cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, was emerging as a major contender in the March 7, 2010 national elections, raising the specter that the next prime minister of Iraq could be openly hostile to the United States and friendly toward Iran.

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Summary: The Iraqi capital of Baghdad is virtually locked down, with soldiers deployed across the city searching protesters trying to enter Liberation Square and closing off the plaza and side streets with razor wire. The heavy security presence reflects the concern of Iraqi officials that anti-government demonstrations in Iraq could gain traction as they did in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 24, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that more than eight years after the Taliban was toppled from power, the number of U.S. military fatalities in the Afghanistan war was nearing 1,000, a grim milestone in a resurgent conflict claiming the lives of an increasing number of troops who had survived previous tours of duty in Iraq.

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Summary: Iran’s president says he is certain the wave of unrest in the Middle East will spread to Europe and North America, bringing an end to governments he accused of oppressing and humiliating people. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose own country resorted to violence to disperse an opposition rally earlier this month, also condemned Libya’s use of force against demonstrators, calling it “grotesque.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 23, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called on his supporters to take back the streets from anti-government protesters and vowed to fight on and die as a “martyr.” Gadhafi spoke as part of the east of Libya fell to the protesters and was reportedly no longer controlled by the central government. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 22, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Iran said it planned to build two new uranium enrichment facilities deep inside mountains to protect them from attack, a new challenge to Western powers trying to curb Tehran’s nuclear program for fear it is aimed at making weapons.

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Summary: Raymond Allen Davis, an American jailed in Pakistan for the fatal shooting of two armed men, was secretly working for the CIA and scouting a neighborhood when he was arrested — a disclosure likely to further frustrate U.S. government efforts to free the man and strain relations between two countries partnered in a fragile alliance in the war on terror. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 21, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Nancy Carver of Rice, Minn., restored her shoreline on Little Rock Lake to native flowers and grasses and helped educate her neighbors about the importance of shoreline restoration for improving water quality.

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Summary: After anti-government unrest spread to the Libyan capital and protesters seized military bases and weapons, Moammar Gadhafi’s son, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, went on state television to proclaim that his father remained in charge with the army’s backing and would “fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 20, 2010, Aubrey Immelman featured a rundown of current conspiracy theories and prevalent political paranoia, with special emphasis on conspiracy-theorist-in-chief Michele Bachmann.

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Summary: Taliban gunmen detonated explosives in front of a Kabul Bank branch and then stormed the building in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, killing several people and injuring scores of others. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 19, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Joseph Stack, a software engineer with a long-standing grudge against the Internal Revenue Service, crashed a small plane into an office building housing IRS employees in Austin, Texas.

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Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, compiled from U.S. Department of Defense news releases and iCasualties.org. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 18, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the Fargo-Moorhead Forum ran an informative editorial on Rep. Michele Bachmann, the face of an emerging brand of American protofascism spawned by the “perfect storm” of the attacks of 9/11, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the election of America’s first African-American president.

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Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who claims to support low taxes, has inexplicably come out in opposition to an Obama administration initiative to give expectant moms a tax break — reducing the tax liabilityof mothers who breastfeed their babies by allowing a tax deduction for the purchase of breast pumps. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 17, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the Taliban’s top military commander had been captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces. The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started in late 2001. He ranked second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

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Summary: About 2,000 demonstrators attacked government offices in the southern Iraqi province of
Wasit, ripping up pavement stones to hurl at a regional council headquarters in a protest over shoddy public services, leaving dozens of people injured. In the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, hundreds of demonstrators also thronged the streets demanding better services. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 16, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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