Post-invasion
Main articles: Post-invasion Iraq, 2003–present, Insurgency in Iraq, Civil war in Iraq, and Humanitarian Crises of the Iraq War
Occupation zones in Iraq after invasion.
Following the invasion, the United States established the Coalition Provisional Authority to govern Iraq.[57] Government authority was transferred to an Iraqi Interim Government in June 2004, and a permanent government was elected in October 2005. More than 140,000 troops, mainly Americans, remain in Iraq.
Some studies have placed the number of civilians deaths as high as 655,000 (see The Lancet study), although most studies estimate a lower number; the Iraq Body Count project indicates a significantly lower number of civilian deaths than that of The Lancet Study, though IBC organizers acknowledge that their statistics are an undercount as they base their information off of media-confirmed deaths. The website of the Iraq body count states, "Our maximum therefore refers to reported deaths – which can only be a sample of true deaths unless one assumes that every civilian death has been reported. It is likely that many if not most civilian casualties will go unreported by the media."[58]
After the invasion, al-Qaeda took advantage of the national resistance to entrench itself in the country. On December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was hanged.[59] Hussein's half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Hassan and former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar were likewise executed on January 15, 2007;[60] as was Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam's former deputy and former vice-president (originally sentenced to life in prison but later to death by hanging), on March 20, 2007.[61] Ramadan was the fourth and last man in the al-Dujail trial to die by hanging for crimes against humanity.
President of Iraq Jalal Talabani with U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009.
At the Anfal genocide trial, Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid (aka Chemical Ali), former defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed al-Tay, and former deputy Hussein Rashid Mohammed were sentenced to hang for their role in the Al-Anfal Campaign against the Kurds on June 24, 2007.[citation needed] Al-Majid was sentenced to death three more times: once for the 1991 suppression of a Shi'a uprising along with Abdul-Ghani Abdul Ghafur on December 2, 2008;[62] once for the 1999 crackdown in the assassination of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad al-Sadr on March 2, 2009;[63] and once on January 17, 2010 for the gassing of the Kurds in 1988;[64] he was hanged over a week later on January 25.[65]
Acts of sectarian violence have led to claims of ethnic cleansing in Iraq, and there have been many attacks on Iraqi minorities such as the Yezidis, Mandeans, Assyrians and others.[66] A U.S. troop surge to deal with increased violence and improve security became a contentious political issue in the United States. The surge in troops was enacted in early 2007; in his September 2007 testimony to Congress, General Petraeus stated that the surge's goals were being met.[67] Iraq also suffered a cholera outbreak in 2007.[68]
AndreaLee EWSIS on 22 Oct 09As I was searching for blogs about the 2012 Apocalypse, this site showed up. In this article, the Mayans are being blamed for "making the world end." There is no reason for the Mayans to be blamed for killing the human race and the world itself because all they did was prophesize and write down theories. In my opinion, don't hate one human race for killing the world that has already been to blame. At least this is what I am getting from the title itself.
