Attack trends and oil production trends in Iraq

By Greg Richards

The weekly USAID report on Iraq for November 7 has a most interesting chart on the levels and types of attacks in Iraq on a weekly basis from late 2004 to the present. Since early June when the surge troops were finally in place, weekly attacks of all types have dropped from 1600 per week to 600 per week, as can be seen in the following chart taken from that report:

Iraq attacks

If this is not yet victory, it is certainly progress, even without an overall political settlement. From the same report, we can also see the gradual increase that is occurring in oil production:

Iraq crude oil production

While Iraq remains a struggle, with unemployment estimated as high as 50% and great displacement of refugees, still the outcome of this war is of high consequence to the United States and we do not want to despair of it when we are making real progress.