Max Boot compares the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sam Parker, an expert on Iraq, says the initial results from the provincial elections indicate Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been strengthened and Sunnis in restive Mosul may play a more positive role now that they appear to have defeated Kurds at the polls.

Iraq's provincial elections provide signals about the maturity of the country's political system, as well as highlight new power brokers in the provinces.

Peter Beinart urges Democrats to publicly acknowledge that they were wrong on the surge.

The Sunni awakening movement and the Sons of Iraq security forces it inspired helped restore peace. Iraq's long-term stability could hinge on keeping the movement satiated, experts say.

On paper Iraq's justice system appears sound, but Michael Wahid Hanna of The Century Foundation says "major systemic and structural problems" plague Iraq's legal framework.

This is a draft version of a December 13, 2008 report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR); it was given to the New York Times and news service ProPublica.

Passage of security agreements between Washington and Baghdad suggest the United States has moved toward the exit in Iraq, though the path to departure remains unclear.

Kenneth M. Pollack of the Brookings Institution says that he is concerned that the U.S. and political establishment" increasingly feels that Iraq is heading toward victory" even though "Iraq still is a very troubled country."

Listen to Linda Robinson, author in residence at the Johns Hopkins University's Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies and Francis J. West, correspondent at the Atlantic Monthly Press, assess the political and strategic effects of the surge in Iraq.

Watch Linda Robinson, author in residence at the Johns Hopkins University's Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies and Francis J. West, correspondent at the Atlantic Monthly Press, assess the political and strategic effects of the surge in Iraq.

Noah Feldman writes that "the time for change is now, lest Afghanistan become the quagmire that Iraq was once said to be."

This agreement between the U.S. and Iraq was signed on November 27, 2008. A statement by President George W. Bush says the agreement "sets the foundation for a long-term bilateral relationship between our two countries".

Michael Gerson writes that "administration officials believe they have taken precautions that will encourage Iraqi nationalism over a destructive pan-Shiism."

Iraqi lawmakers approved new ground rules for the U.S. troop presence, including a U.S. withdrawal by 2011. But questions about the accords' legal longevity remain.