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.

Interview with Angela Bynum, veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, as part of the Tarrant County War Veterans Oral History Project. The interview includes Bynum's personal experiences of childhood and education in California and Texas, enlisting in the U.S. Army, basic and advanced training as a motor transport operator, training in avoidance of improvised explosive devices, and transport missions between Iraq and Kuwait. Bynum also discusses her inability to withstand Airborne training, the decision to leave active duty in 2002, her use of the GI Bill benefits to attend Tarrant Community College, the 2004 call-up from reserve duty and deployment to Iraq, her family's concerns regarding deployment, and aspects of daily life for American soldiers stationed in Iraq.

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.

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