Portraits of Instability

6. IRAQ

Mission not accomplished: Six years after Saddam Hussein was violently deposed, Iraq remains an enormously violent and dangerous country. Despite the military success of the U.S. troop "surge," which dramatically decreased violence in Baghdad and Anbar province in 2007, the country faces sustained and often intense fighting between sectarian groups and coalition forces. Refugees are a problem as well; around 2 million Iraqis have fled abroad since 2003, and a further 2 million are still internally displaced. As many as 100,000 Iraqi civilians may have died since the start of the current conflict -- 20,000 of whom were abducted and executed, one recent study found.

Franco Pagetti/VII

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