Iraq on Tenterhooks

Here is a highly abbreviated form of the Iraq Index, published and updated twice a week by Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution:

Americans Killed in Action (monthly average)

2003: 32
2004: 59
2005: 56
2006: 47

Crude Oil Production (m. bbls./day)

Prewar: 2.50
Goal: 2.50
actual: 1.84 (2/06)

Electricity (megawatts)

Prewar: 3,958
Goal: 6,000
actual: 3,600 (2/06)

American combat deaths are down this year, though not dramatically. Crude oil production, which the U.S. optimistically believed would start paying for Iraq’s recovery soon after Saddam was removed, has yet to recover to prewar levels. And the best single measure of basic quality of life in Iraq, electricity production, was lower in February than it was when Saddam was in power. Not good.

Then, there is the current delay in forming a government to run Iraq. Yet Iraq is up from its low points, and has so far averted civil war, though Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has done his darndest to get one going. It feels like the future of Iraq hangs in the balance right now.