Bush Administration Strategy and Role of the United Nations.Civil-Military Roles and Responsibilities.Coordination on Operations under the Security Agreement.Future of the Iraqi Security Forces Training Mission.Applying OIF Lessons to Interagency Coordination.Assessing the Implications of OIF Lessons for the Future of the Force.Policy Toward Iranian Intervention in Iraq Current Operational Dynamics: Transitions.Current Strategic Dynamics: Tests and 'Spoilers'.Current Strategic and Operational Dynamics.Strategic Framework Agreement and Security Agreement.Revised U.S.-Iraqi Strategic Partnership.This report is intended to provide background and analysis of current developments and options, and will be updated as events warrant. presence and role in Iraq and laying the groundwork for a future, more traditional bilateral relationship. engagement monitoring and evaluating the impact of the changes in the U.S. national interests and strategic objectives, in Iraq and the region, should guide further U.S. Key policy issues the Obama Administration may choose to address, with oversight from the 111th Congress, include identifying how U.S. The Government of Iraq (GoI), for its part, still faces challenges at the operational level, in countering the lingering strands of the insurgency and at the strategic level, in achieving a single, shared vision of the Iraqi state, and in improving its capacity to provide good governance, ensure security, and foster economic development for the Iraqi people. engagement with Iraq is likely to continue. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, and Secretary Gates, have suggested that lasting change in Iraq will require substantially more time, and that while the U.S. contractors, who provide substantial support to their Iraqi counterparts in the fields of security, governance, and development. troops deployed in Iraq, in addition to civilian experts and U.S. The United States begins this transition from a position of significant commitment – including some 140,000 U.S. combat forces by August 2010 and the transition of the rest of the military mission to training and advising Iraq security forces, conducting counter-terrorism operations, and providing force protection for U.S. On February 27, 2009, at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, President Obama delivered a speech addressing “how the war in Iraq will end,” in which he announced the drawdown of U.S. military efforts has shifted from counterinsurgency (COIN) to stability operations, including advising the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and supporting security, economic, and governance capacity-building. military commanders on the ground have indicated that in most parts of Iraq, the focus of U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the agreement a “watershed, a firm indication that American military involvement in Iraq is winding down.” U.S. A new U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that went into effect on January 1, 2009, which confirmed the Iraqis’ responsibility for their own security, introduced a new era in OIF and in US-Iraqi bilateral relations. In 2009, the war in Iraq appears to be winding down, as security gains made since the height of the insurgency in 20 continue to be sustained, and as Iraqis increasingly seek management of their own affairs. Over time, the focus of OIF shifted from regime removal to the more open-ended mission of helping the Government of Iraq (GoI) improve security, establish a system of governance, and foster economic development. Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), the U.S.-led coalition military operation in Iraq, was launched on March 20, 2003, with the immediate stated goal of removing Saddam Hussein’s regime and destroying its ability to use weapons of mass destruction or to make them available to terrorists.

Operation iraqi freedom