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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On the 31st 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 a pending National Intelligence Estimate will conclude that Afghanistan is in a downward spiral and that U.S. intelligence agencies doubt that the Kabul government has the ability to stem the rise of the Taliban, citing widespread corruption inside President Hamid Karzai’s government, an increase in attacks by militants operating out of Pakistan, and a general breakdown of central government authority in Afghanistan.

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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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On the 24th 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.N. had declared the Pakistani capital of Islamabad unsafe for the children of its international staff, putting the once tranquil city on par with the capitals of Afghanistan and Somalia. He also reported that the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, had called for more troops to stem the deteriorating security situation.

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Summary: On the 15th 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 the downing of a U.S. drone amid strains between the United States and Pakistan over cross-border incursions; the attempted assassination of the Kabul police’s head of criminal investigations in Afghanistan; and security incidents and U.S. casualties in Iraq.

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Summary: On the 11th 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 the release of a new al-Qaida tape marking the 7th anniversary of 9/11, threatening attacks in Afghanistan; a huge suicide truck bombing that devastated the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad; and a speech by Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, in which he said Pakistan will not tolerate violations of its sovereignty in the name of fighting terrorism — a clear signal to the United States to avoid controversial cross-border strikes against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

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Summary: On the ninth 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. invasion of Iraq in 2003 turned it into a terrorist training ground for jihadists around the world, with militants converging on Iraq to learn increasingly sophisticated insurgency techniques and then exporting those tactics to other hotspots, including Afghanistan, turning the war against terror “global” in a way not foreseen by the Bush administration.

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Summary: On the eighth 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 a Pakistani military order to fire on U.S. troops crossing the Afghan border for raids into Pakistan; the increasing number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan; the high rate of Afghan civilian casualties; and a spate of bombings and shootings in Iraq.

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