The Road to the Surge

In the summer of 2006, attacks on U.S. troops spiked to 1,000 a week as casualties surpassed 2,500, leading President Bush to privately acknowledge what he wasn't saying publicly: the U.S. war strategy in Iraq was broken. Bush's subsequent decision to deploy nearly 30,000 additional U.S. troops to reduce the violence - despite opposition from his top military commanders in Washington and Iraq - marked a dramatic shift in his management of the war. Below, a guide to key events and measures of violence in the Iraq war, before and after implementation of the surge.

SOURCES: News reports, official documents, Bob Woodward's "State of Denial" and "The War Within"
Research by Amanda Zamora - washingtonpost.com; Brady Dennis - The Washington Post; Graphics by Nelson Hsu - washingtonpost.com