Francke, What has the surge meant for Iraqis?

September 15, 2007 Iraq No Comments

Rend al-Rahim Franke, Seven months into the surge: What does it mean for Iraqis?, USIP, September 2007 (working draft)

To the distress of the Sunnis, Baghdad is increasingly a Shi’a city, either

because Sunnis are being pushed out or are choosing to leave, and the geographic area

of the capital in which Sunnis are now a majority and feel safe is shrinking (for example,

parts of Saydiya, a fierce battleground between Sunni and Shi’a militias, are now

controlled by the Shi’a)…. While the control exercised by the Shi’a reduces

sectarian killing, it is a source of extreme anxiety to the Sunni political groups, who fear

above all the loss of the capital.

The US-led coalition has fewer and fewer non-American troops

September 15, 2007 Iraq No Comments

U.S.-Led Coalition Becoming Ever More All-American - New York Times, September 15, 2007

MOSCOW, Sept. 14 — The former Soviet republic of Georgia will reduce its troop deployment in Iraq to 300 soldiers from 2,000 by next July, in keeping with previous plans, the country’s defense minister said Friday.

Georgia, a nation of just 4.6 million in the Caucasus Mountains, is currently the third-largest supplier of troops for Iraq, after only the United States and Britain.