In addition, war crimes committed in Iraq horrified the world again and again – the torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, the shooting deaths of 24 civilians at Haditha and the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl at Mahmudiya, along with the killing of three other members of her family.

The streets were never safe, even for ordinary Iraqis. Innocent people fell victims to religious strife or suicide bombings targeting the allied troops.

The Shiites – which won the December 2005 election – finally came to power after being ruled by the Sunni minority for decades. The Kurds in the north are seeking autonomy and a share of power in the central government.

Iraqi lawmakers are considering an oil law to divide the country's oil and gas profits among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to achieve national reconciliation.

The Iraqi security forces have not been capable of maintaining social order on their own, not to mention preventing the country from sliding toward a civil war.

Last year, the United States raised its troop commitment to Iraq above 160,000, the highest level since the invasion, and finally began to see the war's death toll dropping.

Attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since last June, when the troop build-up was completed.

Though the surge was strongly opposed by the Democrats, the nation seemed to have been left little choice.