Over the past several days I have been asked by more than a few people as to where they could find raw statistics and information to give them an idea of what is happening in Iraq. As a result, I have decided to take just a few minutes and write up this short post describing where everyone can find a horde of fairly objective stats and info.

The best place to go is the homepage of the Iraq Index, published by the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Studies. It is updated and published on a bi-weekly basis in Adobe .pdf format and contains lots of data compiled from a myriad of news sources. Just be warned, like every other think tank around, the Brookings Institution has a political bias (it leans to the center-left).

Secondly, the Department of State publishes the Iraq Weekly Status Report in .pdf format every Wednesday. I don't think it's as useful or as comprehensive as the Iraq Index, but it still has some fairly good information. Of course, it takes a pro-administration position.

And finally, here's Emily Hunt... I'm linking to her for no particular reason other than the fact that she's a hot and seems to know a lot about terrorists, which I think makes her even more hot.

Hope this helps a bit. This post was about giving readers information, not debating the war, so please don't bless us with political hackery on the issue; let's leave that to the talking heads.