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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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With Defense Secretary Leon Panetta approving an order officially ending the Iraq war, the last American troops crossed the border from Iraq into Kuwait early Sunday, December 18, 2011, ending the U.S. military presence there after nearly nine years of war.

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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President Barack Obama declared an end to U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, announcing that all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011.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.

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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.

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Summary: A string of coordinated explosions targeting security officials and first responders rushing to the scene killed at least 10 people and injured twice that many in western Baghdad. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 11, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that North Korea celebrated the 65th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party founded by “Great Leader” Kim Il-sung and anointed “Young General” Kim Jong-un as “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il’s successor.

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Summary: Iraq has joined Iran in offering key moral and financial support to Syria, undermining a central U.S. foreign policy objective in the Middle East and raising fresh concerns that Iraq is drifting further into Iran’s sphere of influence. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 9, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI thanking him for opposing Florida pastor Terry Jones’s threat to burn the Quran and calling for cooperation against secularism.

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Summary: One in three U.S. veterans of the post-9/11 military believes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth fighting, and a majority think that after 10 years of combat America should be focusing less on foreign affairs and more on its own problems, according to a Pew Research Center opinion survey. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 5, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner announced that nothing of consequence was found in the July 2010 search of the Rassier farmstead in the Jacob Wetterling kidnapping investigation; however, he added that technology could eventually improve to the extent that it would allow for future testing of the items seized.

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