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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Summary: As President Obama prepares to release a review of American strategy in Afghanistan that will claim progress in the nine-year-old war there, two new classified National Intelligence Estimates offer a more negative assessment and say there is a limited chance of success unless Pakistan hunts down insurgents operating from havens on its Afghan border. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 15, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning project of the St. Petersburg Times to find the truth in American politics, announced its “Lie of the Year” contest to find the most significant political falsehood of 2009, with U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann among the eight nominees.

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Summary: In 2003, when America began its occupation of Iraq, bombings with half the casualties of the March 11, 2009, Abu Ghraib bombing that killed 33 suggested the United States might not prevail. Six years after the U.S. invasion, the attack failed to make the front page of the government newspaper.

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Summary: Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi reporter who hurled his shoes at George W. Bush, said at his trial that President Bush’s smile as he talked about achievements in Iraq had made him think of “the killing of more than a million Iraqis, the disrespect for the sanctity of the mosques and houses, the rapes of women,” and enraged him. Al-Zeidi added: “After more than a million Iraqis killed, after all the economic and social destruction … I felt that this person is the killer of the people, the prime murderer. I was enraged and threw my shoes at him.”

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Summary: Iraq imposed a nationwide security lockdown before key regional elections with blanket measures not seen since the deadliest years of the insurgency, underscoring the high stakes for Iraqi leaders desperate to portray stability after nearly six years of conflict.

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Summary: By actually putting into practice the Neo-Conservative theories of pre-emptive war and unilateralism, George W. Bush demonstrated their failure more persuasively than could the most articulate progressive critic.

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Iraq’s fractious parliament squeezed its abrasive speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani out of a job and authorized non-U.S. foreign troops to stay in the country for another half-year, a pair of high-stakes moves in its final session of 2008.

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Summary: The brother of Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, says his apology letter was written against his will after he was tortured in detention. The shoe-throwing incident received worldwide media coverage and al-Zeidi has become a potent symbol for opponents of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

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Summary: Iraq’s parliament has voted to reject a draft law that allows troops from Britain, Australia, and several other countries to remain in Iraq beyond the end of 2008.

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Summary: 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 threw his shoes at President George W. Bush. … In an interview with ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney attempted to justify the decision to invade Iraq. … A double-bombing targeting traffic police in Baghdad killed at least 18 people and wounded 52. … Raed Fahmy, 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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