LESSONS ENCOUNTERED

The Surges in Iraq and Afghanistan
Figure 2. Weekly Enemy-Initiated Attacks Against Coalition and Partners
Source: Iraq Index: Tracking Variables of Reconstruction & Security in Post-Saddam Iraq (Washington, DC: The Brookings
Institution, November 30, 2011), 4, available at .
Table 2. Total U.S. Military Fatalities, by Year
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
486 849 846 822 904 314 149 60 53
Source: Iraq Index: Tracking Variables of Reconstruction & Security in Post-Saddam Iraq (Washington, DC: The Brookings
Institution, November 30, 2011), 7, available at .
It would be difficult to define Iraq as being a functioning democracy that
polices its territory, upholds the rule of law, respects fundamental human liberties,
and answers to its people. By this measure, the Surge was not a success.
The final cost in lives in Iraq operations between 2003 and 2011 was 4,486
Americans, 218 coalition partners, and at least 103,775 Iraqis. 158 Some find it
hard to assess whether this price was worth paying. Others tend to give credit
to external forces such as the Sunni Awakening. But as Peter Mansoor has not-
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