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Iraq by the Numbers

In the sixth year of the third-longest war in American history, more than 4,000 American servicemen and women have been killed.  More than 150,000 U.S. troops are now deployed, up from 132,000 in Iraq before President Bush’s “surge.” While the administration originally estimated that the war would cost less than $60 billion, the long-term price tag is now $3 trillion. No wonder that in our online survey more than 80 percent of you oppose continuing the war. In the news media, meanwhile, there has been a “staggering” decline in coverage of Iraq, according to an article in the American Journalism Review.

 

Iraq – key benchmarks and the state of the “surge”
 
  Number of U.S. troops that will be in Iraq in the summer of 2008, according to the Bush Administration’s projections:
 140,000
 
Number of U.S. troops in Iraq in January 2007, prior to the military escalation:
 132,000
 
Number of U.S. troops in Iraq when President Bush declared “mission accomplished” in May 2003:
 130,000
 
Number of months before Iraq’s security forces will be able to independently fulfill its security role, according to the September 2007 final report of the Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq:
 12-18 months
 
Number of years that Iraq’s security forces will continue to require U.S. military support, according to senior military officials:
 10 years
 
Number of provinces (of a total of 18) where Iraq’s security forces have assumed the lead security role:
 9
 
Number of Iraqi soldiers and policemen who deserted or refused to fight in the recent military offensive in Basra:
 1,300
 
Percent of the estimated 91,000 primarily Sunni volunteers aligned with the U.S. supported Concerned Local Citizens (CLC) program the Iraqi government has pledged to integrate in Iraq’s Security Forces:
 25 percent  
 
Number of Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody prior to the troop surge (January 2007):
 14,000
 
Number of Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody today:
 23,000
 
Percent of the $10 billion in reconstruction funds that the Iraqi government spent on programs aimed at improving the lives of the Iraqi people (as of November 2007):
 7 percent
 
Estimated amount of Iraqi government surplus funds that are currently sitting in bank accounts, primarily in the United States:    
 $30 billion
 
Estimated number of Iraqis who fled their homes each month, from January to July 2007:
 100,000
 
Percent of Iraqis surveyed by the United Nations who say they left their neighborhoods in response to direct threats to their lives:
 63 percent
 
Percent of Baghdad’s population that was Sunni before the Surge:
 65 percent
 
Percent of Baghdad’s population that is Shiite today:
 75 percent
 
Percent of Iraqis surveyed in a March 2008 poll who said that the freedom to live where you wish without persecution in Iraq is “quite bad” or “very bad”:
 60 percent
 
Percent of Iraqis surveyed in a March 2008 poll who disapprove of the way Prime Minister al-Maliki is handling his job:
 58 percent
 
Percent of a group of more than 100 foreign policy experts (bipartisan group) who assess that the surge has had a negative impact on U.S. national security:
 53 percent
 
Percent of Iraqis surveyed in a March 2008 poll who oppose the presence of Coalition Forces in Iraq:
 73 percent
 
Percent of Americans who support a strategy to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq:
 56 percent
 
Percent of American military families who disapprove of the Bush administration's handling of the needs of active-duty troops, military families and veterans:
 53 percent
 
Rank of Iraq on the 2007 Failed States Index:
 2
 
 
 
 
Iraq – Security
   
Approximate number of U.S. troops currently in Iraq:
 150,000
 
Percent of coalition forces contributed by the U.S.:
 94
 
Number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq:
 4,081
 
Number of U.S. service members wounded in Iraq:
 30,059
 
Number of National Guard soldiers killed in Iraq:
 454
 
Number of National Guard soldiers killed in the entire Vietnam War:
 97
 
Number of Iraqi military and police killed since training began in June 2003:
 8,257
 
Number of journalists killed in Iraq:
 127
 
Number of journalists killed in Vietnam:
 63
 
Percent of terrorists, foreign fighters, and insurgents who continue to gain sanctuary, resources and border access from Syria:
 90 percent
 
Percent of Iraqis who approve of attacks on Coalition forces:
 42 percent
 
Number of Iraqi police and security forces trained and equipped:
 445,662
 
Number of weapons the U.S. provided to Iraq’s security forces in 2004-2005 that the Pentagon is unable to account for:
 190,000
 
Value of unaccounted for military equipment and services uncovered by a recent Pentagon Inspector General audit of the $5.2 billion U.S. fund for training and equipping Iraq’s security forces:
 $1.1 billion
 
Estimated amount of Iraqi government money that has been lost to corruption and stealing schemes (and often has fallen into the hands of militias) since 2004:
 $18 billion
 
Rank of Iraq on Transparency International’s annual corruption index (out of 180 countries surveyed, with 180 being the most corrupt):
 178
 
 
 
 
Iraq – Costs of the War
   
The Bush Administration’s original estimates of the cost of the war:
 $50-60 billion
 
Amount appropriated for operations in Iraq to date:   
 $526 billion
 
Pending Fiscal Year 2008 emergency war supplemental request:
 $108 billion
 
Estimated cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for Fiscal Year 2009, according to Secretary Gates:
 $170 billion
 
Amount the Bush Administration requested for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for Fiscal Year 2009:
 $70 billion
 
Estimated total cost of the war in Iraq:
 >$3 trillion
 
Cost of funding the war through borrowed money:
 $816 billion
 
Approximate amount spent by the U.S. in World War I (in inflation-adjusted dollars):
 $264 billion
 
Approximate amount spent by the U.S. in Vietnam (in inflation-adjusted dollars):
 $669 billion
 
Approximate amount the U.S. is spending in Iraq per month:  
 $12 billion
 
Approximate amount the U.S. spent in Iraq per month in Fiscal Year 2003 (including operational and investment costs):  
 $4.4 billion
 
Percent of current and former U.S. military officers surveyed in a recent independent study who believe that the demands of the war in Iraq have “stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin:”
 88 percent
 
Percent of military officers surveyed who believe that the U.S. has gained “the greatest strategic advantage from the war in Iraq:”
 19 percent
 
Percent of military officers surveyed who believe that Iran has gained “the greatest strategic advantage from the war in Iraq:”
 37 percent
 
 
 
 
Iraq – Humanitarian
    
 Estimated number of Iraqis killed in the violence since U.S.-led invasion, according to the Iraq Body Count:
  83,798– 91,460
 
 
 Estimated number of Iraqis killed in the violence since U.S.-led invasion, according to a recent survey conducted by the Iraqi government and the World Health Organization:
 151,000
 
 
 Estimated increase in nonviolent deaths – due to causes such as childhood infections and kidney failure – among Iraqis since 2003:
 60 percent
 
 
 Number of Iraqi civilians that need immediate emergency aid (i.e. water, sanitation, food and shelter), according to an independent July 2007 study:
 8 million (approximately 1/3 of Iraq population)
 
 
 Approximate number of Iraqi who have fled the country as refugees:
 >2 million
 
 
 Approximate number of Iraqis who have been internally displaced:
 2.7 million
 
 
 Percent of Iraq’s professional class that has left the country since late 2003:
 40 percent
 
 
 Percent of doctors, pharmacists, and nurses who have left their jobs since 2003:
 Up to 75 percent
 
 
 Number of Iraqis who were granted entry to the United States in Fiscal Year 2007 (out of a goal of 7,000):  
 1,608
 
 
 Number of Iraqis who have been granted entry to the United States in 2008 (out of a goal of 12,000):
 2,627
 
 
 Percent of Iraq’s population that currently lives in “absolute poverty”:
 43
 
 
 Infant mortality rate in Iraq: (Middle East average is 37, sub-Saharan Africa average is 105)
 102
 
 
 Percent of Iraqi children who suffered from malnutrition prior to the war:
 19 percent
 
 
 Percent of Iraqi children who are chronically malnourished today:
 28 percent
 
 
 Percent of Iraqi children who have access to safe drinking water:
 40 percent
 
 
 Percent of Iraqi elementary-age children who attended school in 2006, according to the Iraq Ministry of Education:
 75 percent
 
 
 Percent of Iraqi elementary-age children who attended school in 2007 according to the Iraq Ministry of Education:
 30 percent
 
 
 Percent of 17 year-olds in Iraq who took final exams last summer, according to UNICEF:
 28 percent
 
 

Iraq - Reconstruction
    
Total amount appropriated by the U.S. for relief and reconstruction in Iraq:
 $46.3 billion
 
 
 Percent of the $20.8 billion U.S. Iraq Relief and Reconstruction fund for large-scale reconstruction projects that has been spent:
 93 percent
 
 
 Percent of U.S. reconstruction projects that the Iraqi government has assumed responsibility for:
 15 percent
 
 
 Of the $15.8 billion pledged during and after the October 2003 Madrid conference, amount foreign countries have actually spent on reconstruction in Iraq:
 $2.5 billion or 16 percent
 
 
 Estimated unemployment rate, according to the Pentagon:
 17.6 percent
 
 
 Estimated underemployment rate, according to the Pentagon:
 38.1 percent
 
 
 Percent of Iraqis surveyed in a February poll who rated the availability of jobs as quite bad or very bad:
 70 percent
 
 
 Of the $57 billion in contract funds for Iraq reconstruction aid, the amount the U.S. government has squandered due to contractor overcharges and unsupported expenses:
 $10 billion
 
 
 Of these $10 billion in overpriced contracts and unsupported expenses, amount that was charged by Halliburton:
 $2.7 billion
 
 
 Oil production for May 2008 (barrels per day):
 2.38 million
 
 
 Average oil production prior to invasion (barrels per day):
 2.5 million
 
 
 Bush Administration’s prewar projections of Iraq’s post-war oil output (barrels per day):
 3 million
 
 
 Portion of Iraq’s GDP generated by oil revenues:
 2/3
 
 
 Electricity production in Iraq (in megawatts) prior to invasion (March 2003):
 4,110
 
 
 Electricity production to have been reached by July 2004, according to U.S. reconstruction goals:
 6,000
 
 
 Electricity production in Iraq (in megawatts) in May 2008:
 4,040
 
 
 Percent current electricity supply outpaces demand:
 57 percent
 
 
 Percent of Iraqis surveyed in a February poll who rated the supply of electricity as “quite bad” or “very bad:”
 88 percent
 
 
 Percent of Iraqis who lacked regular access to clean water prior to 2003:
 50 percent
 
 
 Percent of Iraqis who lack regular access to clean water today - according to a July 2007 Oxfam International report:
 70 percent
 
 
 Percent of Iraqis who lack effective sanitation - according to a July 2007 Oxfam International report:
 80 percent
 
 
 Number of the 142 U.S. funded primary health care centers that are open to the public:
 60
 
 
 Percent of Iraqis surveyed in a February poll who rated the availability of medical care as “quite bad” or “very bad:”
 62 percent
 
    
SOURCES
 
Iraq – key benchmarks and the state of the “surge”

1.  Associated Press, 2/2808.

2.  Associated Press, 2/2808.

3.  Salon.com 9/10/07.

4.  Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq, 9/6/07. 9/6/07.

5.  Washington Post, 1/18/08.

6.  Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq, March 2008.

7.  New York Times, 4/14/08.

8.  Los Angeles Times, 1/14/08.  Brookings Institution Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

9.  Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

10. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

11.  Wall Street Journal, 3/17/08.

12. CRS, Iraq: Post-Saddam Governance and Security, Updated March 31, 2008.  See report p. 2, $20 billion + in funding reserves of foreign currency and gold.  Additionally, nearly $10 billion in unspent capitol funds from 2007 remain in U.S. banks.  Estimate of $30 billion provided by CRS, 4/11/08.

13. Washington Post, 9/5/07.

14.  Washington Post, 9/5/07.

15.  McClatchy, 9/9/07.

16.  McClatchy, 9/9/07

17. BBC, 3/14/08. ABC News/BBC/NHK National survey.

18.  Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

19. Terrorism Index, Center for American Progress/Foreign Policy, 8/20/07.

20. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

21. Washington Post, 4/18/08.

22. Los Angeles Times, 12/7/07.

23. Failed States Index, as reported by the Washington Post, 6/18/07.

 
Iraq – Security

1. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

2.  Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/5/08 reports that there were approximately 9,907 non-U.S., non-Iraqi troops in Iraq as of May 2008.  

3.  Department of Defense, OIF Casualty Update, 5/19/08.

4.  Department of Defense, OIF Casualty Update, 5/19/08.

5. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

6.  New York Daily News, 7/5/05.

7. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

8.  Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

9.  New York Times, 5/30/06.  3,468 attacks in Iraq in 2005 and 6,630 in 2006.

10. Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq, March 2008.

11. BBC, 3/14/08. ABC News/BBC/NHK National survey.

12. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

13. According to the GAO, as reported by the Washington Post, 8/6/07.

14. Associated Press, 12/7/07.

15. New York Times, 12/2/07.

16. New York Times, 12/2/07. Also, see Transparency International: http://www.transparency.org

 

Iraq – Cost of the War

1. New York Times, 12/31/02.

2. Senate Appropriations Committee Majority Staff, 2/4/08; CRS, last updated 5/16/08.

3. CRS, last updated 5/16/08.

4. New York Times, 2/7/08.

5. New York Times, 2/7/08.

6.  New York Times, 3/19/08.

7.  Associated Press, 3/10/08.

8.  Congressional Research Service, 10/18/07.

9.  Congressional Research Service, 10/18/07.

10.  Washington Post, 3/9/08.

11.  Congressional Research Service RL 33110. This estimate includes both operational (military personnel, operation and maintenance, working capitol, defense health) and investment (procurement, RTD&E, and military construction) costs, last updated 5/16/08.

12. Foreign Policy/Center for New American Security, February 2008.

13. Foreign Policy/Center for New American Security, February 2008.

14. Foreign Policy/Center for New American Security, February 2008.

 

Iraq - Humanitarian

1. Iraq Body Count, accessed 5/5/08.

2. Washington Post, 1/10/08.

3. Washington Post, 1/10/08.

4. Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI). Rising to the Humanitarian Challenge in Iraq, July 2007.

5. UNHCR, The Iraq Situation, 4/1/08.

6. UNHCR, The Iraq Situation, 4/1/08.

7. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

8.  Medact, 1/16/08. http://www.medact.org/content/violence/MedactIraq08final.pdf

9. Human Rights First, 2007 Iraq Refugee Admissions.

10. USA Today, 4/21/08.

11. Oxfam, Rising to the humanitarian challenge in Iraq, 7/07.

12. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

13. Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI), Rising to the humanitarian challenge in Iraq, 7/07.

14. Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI), Rising to the humanitarian challenge in Iraq, 7/07.

15. InterPress Service, 3/10/08.

16. Newsweek, 1/22/07.

17. Newsweek, 1/22/07.

18. McClatchy, 12/21/07.

 

Iraq - Reconstruction

1. Special Inspector for Iraq Reconstruction, Quarterly Report to Congress, April 2008.

2. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

3. Los Angeles Times, 7/30/07.  

4. USA Today, 1/30/08.

5. Department of Defense, Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq, March 2008.

6. Department of Defense, Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq, March 2008.

7. BBC, 3/14/08. ABC News/BBC/NHK National survey.

8. Associated Press, 2/15/07.

9. Associated Press, 2/15/07.

10. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

11. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

12. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

13. Department of Defense, Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq, March 2008.

14.  Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

15. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

16. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

17. Department of Defense, Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq, March 2008.

18. BBC, 3/14/08. ABC News/BBC/NHK National survey.

19. Oxfam, Rising to the humanitarian challenge in Iraq, July 2007.

20. Oxfam, Rising to the humanitarian challenge in Iraq, July 2007.

21. Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 5/15/08.

22. Special Inspector for Iraq Reconstruction, Quarterly Report to Congress, April 2008.

23. BBC, 3/14/08. ABC News/BBC/NHK National survey.