General Info

• Location: "Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iran and Kuwait”

• Climate:  "mostly desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless summers; northern mountainous regions along Iranian and Turkish borders experience cold winters with occasionally heavy snows that melt in early spring, sometimes causing extensive flooding in central and southern Iraq”

• Terrain: "mostly broad plains; reedy marshes along Iranian border in south with large flooded areas; mountains along borders with Iran and Turkey”

• Natural Resources: "petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur”

• Religions: "Muslim 97% (Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian or other 3%”

CIA World Fact Book Online. 29, April 2006.  http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/iz.html

Current Issues

• Religious unrest
• Although the U.S. has been in war wtih Iraq for over three years, a survey found that 6 in 10 young Americans were unable to locate Iraq on a world map.
• Should U.S. Troup's still be in Iraq?  

1. U,S, Troups should still be stationed in Iraq to set up a new government and keep the peace.
2. U.S. Troups have no right to be in Iraq. It is not their job to create a new governent. 

• Press Integrity Issues

1. The press is fabricating information to the public

• Partitioning of Iraq : allowing civil war

1. Iraq divide into 3 peices to bring stability: Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds

Works Cited

Dudley, William.  Iraq Opposing Viewpoints. MI: Farmington Hills, Greenhaven Press2004.

Miller, Debra, A. The World’s Hot Spots Iraq. MI: Farmington Hills, Greenhaven Press 2004.

CIA World Fact Book Online. 29, April 2006. http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/iz.html