1. NO END IN SIGHT By: Jessie Williams

2. I was most surprised by:
The ignorance of the United States Government. They were so unorganized at the beginning of the war, and because of this the whole operation fell apart.

3. The things that angered me most:
If the government had prepared a little more, many lives could have been spared.
If they were organized the national landmarks and museums in Iraq could have been saved, and so could all of the historical items, and library’s that held their ancient books
The American soldiers were not given adequate armor and protection

4. Current Iraqi standings:
There was a general election that took place in Iraq in December 2005
Iraq is now a democracy with an elected president: Jalal Talabani
The DeBa’athification is still going on, but to an extent.
The new Iraqi government is trying to remove all ex-ba’athists from security positions and other organizations.
The current Iraqi government wants to remove all ex-ba’athists from the government completely.
The army in Iraq today is helping the U.S. remove the insurgents, the Iraq army today is a very different army than the one just a few years ago

5. Statistics:
U.S Monthly Spending in Iraq - $7.3 billion as of Oct 2009
124,000 American troops in Iraq as of Sept All other countries have withdrawn their troops.
4,352 U.S. troop casualties. 54% under the age of 25
An estimated number by the U.N. of Iraqi citizen casualties is over 600,000

6. Troop influx
General McChrystal of the U.S. army wants to send 40,000 new troops overseas. He says that this is the only way to ensure a U.S. win in Afghanistan.
Obama is currently still deciding weather or weather not to send those troops over

7. Troop Withdrawal Iraq: August of 2010 (hopefully)
There is no withdrawal date set for the troops in Afghanistan, currently more troops are being sent over.

8. Works Cited