Beneath the triumphant veneer that the 2007 surge of US forces to Iraq has "worked" exists the difficult reality that few people outside of Iraq are willing to face. Despite a relative decline in violence, millions of Iraqis continue to live in miserable conditions of insecurity, lacking basic needs like a job and regular access to food and clean water, and worried about the continued widespread presence of militias and criminal gangs. Until US and international efforts focus on the prosperity of the Iraqi people, Iraq will remain a tinderbox and a threat to regional and global security.
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