This report provides background, discussing constitutional provisions allocating war powers between Congress and the President, and presenting a historical overview of relevant court cases.

This report provides background and discusses constitutional provisions allocating war powers between Congress and the President.

This report provides background, discussing constitutional provisions allocating war powers between Congress and the President, and presenting a historical overview of relevant court cases.

None

This report examines Iran's influence in Iraq post-Saddam. This is in large part because the dominant parties in Iraq have long-standing ideological, political, and religious sectarian ties to Tehran. A key U.S. concern is that Iran, seeking to ensure the political prospects of its proteges, supports Shiite militias that are committing sectarian violence. Since December 2006, the Administration has tried to reverse Iranian influence in Iraq while also engaging Iran diplomatically on Iraq.

This report describes Iraq's government formation and benchmarks following the elections in 2005. The elections produced a permanent constitution and a broad-based but Shiite-led government that has been unwilling or unable to take major steps to reduce Sunni popular resentment. The report also describes the Iraqi government as showing significant signs of fragmentation.

This report identifies online sources for maps of Iraq, including government, library, and organizational websites. These sources have been selected on the basis of their authoritativeness and the range, quality, and uniqueness of the maps they provide. Some sources provide up-to-the-minute maps; others have been selected for their collection of historical maps. Maps of the Iraq, the Middle East, the state of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and the movement of refugees in Iraq are provided.

This report lists significant recent events in Iraq since the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Sources include, but are not limited to White House press releases, the U.S. Department of State, U.N. Secretary-General's statements, and major news stories.

This report reviews policy proposals and interim contracts, analyzes the positions of various Iraqi political actors, and discusses potential implications for U.S. foreign policy goals in Iraq.

This report discusses the "oil-for-food" program (OFFP) as the centerpiece of a long-standing U.N. Security Council effort to alleviate human suffering in Iraq while maintaining key elements of the 1991 Gulf war-related sanctions regime. The program, in operation from December 1996 until March 2003, is detailed.

Operation Iraqi Freedom overthrew Saddam Hussein’s regime, but Iraq remains unstable because of Sunni Arab resentment and a related insurgency, compounded by Sunni-Shiite violence that a January 2007 national intelligence estimate says has key elements of a “civil war.” Mounting U.S. casualties and financial costs — without clear signs of security progress — have intensified a debate within the United States over whether to wind down U.S. involvement without completely accomplishing initial U.S. goals.

This report provides information about the current perspectives and policies of Iraq's neighbors; analyzes potential regional responses to continued insurgency, wider sectarian or ethnic violence, and long-term stabilization; discuses shared concerns and U.S. long-term regional interests; and reviews U.S. policy options for responding to various contingencies.

This report presents casualty data compiled by the Department of Defense (DOD), as tallied from the agency’s press releases.

This report presents various governmental and nongovernmental estimates of Iraqi civilian fatalities. The Department of Defense (DOD) regularly updates total U.S. military death and wounded statistics from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), as reflected in CRS Report RS21578, Iraq: Summary of U.S. Casualties. However, no Iraqi or U.S. government office regularly releases statistics on Iraqi civilian deaths.

This report examines Kuwait, which would be pivotal to any U.S. decision to wind down its military involvement in Iraq, has advanced its democratic development since the fall of Saddam Hussein, but it remains concerned about security threats emanating from a still unstable Iraq. In June 2006 parliamentary elections, women voted and ran for the first time, but none won.

This report discusses issues with the U.S. Embassy in Iraq such as the potential rising cost, delay in opening, quality of construction, and reported assertions of trafficking-like labor practices by First Kuwaiti General Trade and Contracting Company, the primary builder of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

This report provides solely Department of Defense (DOD) statistical information on U.S. forces serving in Iraq. It also provides brief official information on the military units scheduled for the next rotation of duty into Iraq.

This report presents difficult-to-find statistics regarding U.S. military casualties in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF, Afghanistan), including those concerning medical evacuations, amputationss, and the demographics of casualties.