Summary: 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the pendulum in Mosul has swung several times between stark violence and fragile security, and 2008 is no different. Last November, when the American regiment arrived, the city’s western half was “entirely enemy territory,” with other areas not much better, says Maj. John Oliver, operations officer of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment’s 3rd Squadron. … A series of blasts struck Baghdad for the third consecutive day, killing nine people and wounding more than 30 others. … Taliban fighters hijacked trucks carrying Humvees and other supplies for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, authorities said after a brazen attack near the Khyber Pass that underscored the militants’ grip across key mountain strongholds.

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Summary: Shiite clerics have warned the Iraqi government not to sign a security pact that would keep U.S. troops in Iraq until 2012, as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki studied what U.S. officials described as the final draft of the U.S.-Iraq status-of-forces agreement. … Referring to President-elect Barack Obama, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said she was “extremely grateful that we have an African-American who has won this year,” calling Obama’s victory “a tremendous signal we sent.”

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Summary: U.S. president-elect Barack Obama faces major foreign policy challenges. Summary of intertwined issues Barack Obama inherits from George W. Bush.

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Summary: On the first day after announcing a write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s stinging rebuke of Bachmann for alleging Barack Obama “may hold anti-American views” and suggesting that the media investigate which members of Congress are “pro-America or anti-America.” Immelman also reported on halting progress in the U.S.-Iraq status-of-forces agreement, ongoing violence in Iraq, and escalating violence in Afghanistan.

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Summary: On the 36th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported that the Afghan insurgency had spread beyond traditional Taliban strongholds, with the number of attacks in the country at a six-year high, and recommended Peter Galbraith’s book “Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America’s Enemies.”

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Summary: On the 34th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported that while the United States was focused on the war in Iraq, Latin America had swung to the left and rival powers had moved into the vacuum created by Bush administration neocon policies focused on the Middle East, leaving the U.S. in its weakest position in decades with respect to Latin American influence.

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Summary: On the 32nd day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported that the Bush administration had removed North Korea from its “state sponsors of terrorism” blacklist. He also posted a daily summary of security incidents in Iraq.

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Summary: On the 30th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported on efforts by the U.S. and Iraq to hammer out a status-of-forces agreement amid meddling by Iran and rifts among Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish factions in the Iraqi government.

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Summary: On the 27th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported that the U.S. Army was unveiling a new doctrine that foresees nation-building missions as becoming more important than conventional warfare; defines “fragile states” that breed crime, terrorism, and religious and ethnic strife as the greatest threat to U.S. national security; and holds that American troops in future will be less likely to engage in major ground combat against hostile states as they did in Iraq and Afghanistan, instead being called upon more often to operate in lawless areas to safeguard populations and rebuild countries.

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Summary: On the 20th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported on mass-casualty bombings in Baghdad and a lecture by Juan Cole on the foreign policy implications of the Iraq war.

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