2. So far in the war in Iraq there is an estimated American death toll of 4,287 with 31,000 wounded. About 4,000 civilian deaths in Iraq have occurred in 2009 which is far less than it was 4 years ago. The dip in civilian deaths probably signifies that the war will soon be over, still 4,000 deaths is still a whole lot.

3. Overall the war has been estimated to have cost us over 3 trillion dollars, and considering we were told that it would cost 1.7 billion at the beginning that is a big difference.

4. They are currently holding an election in Iraq to see who the next leader of the nation will be. Once that election is over President Obama plans on withdrawing a majority of a forces from Iraq so that they can begin to properly reestablish themselves. This pullback of troops is planned to take place in September and be finished in 2011.

5. The process is still in place today and whenever a new candidate is considered for a position in the government there they are given a background-check to see if they were in the old regime. If they are they still aren’t allowed into the government.

6. The Iraqi army has been reinstated to provide more security for the nation overall. It is not as large as it once was though, and people in the Pentagon and Iraq alike are concerned that they will not be enough to maintain Iraq alone for long. They only reestablished 1/3 of the old army though and that meant an army of about 40,000 for the iraqis.

7. The surge was the process of adding more troops to Iraq in order to protect their populous and help establish peace there. 20,000 soldiers were added. Compared to the old Iraqi army of 400,000 this is just a drop in the bucket.