By 2010 British forces had left Iraq and US forces were preparing to do the same. President Obama promised a new direction in domestic and foreign policy, dropping the phrase ‘War on Terror’ entirely, defining the struggle as a battle against terrorist organizations. His rejection of neoconservatism was a rejection of Bush's policies in the Middle East, which included the occupation of Iraq.

US combat troops left Iraq in 2010, although over 50,000 military support troops remained until the end of 2011 (Gabbatt, 2010). Though the daily killing of civilians continued, the years following Obama's election saw the violence claiming fewer lives than ever before, since Iraq was invaded (Table 4.1).

Iraq's human security would be affected by three factors during this period: the Human Terrain System, the Awakening Councils and the Arab Uprisings, all of which demonstrated America's tactics, power and influence; all of which caused further violence, the escalation and spillover of wars fought in the Middle East and North Africa, and ultimately the deaths of thousands of Iraqis.

Iraq 2010

While 2010's civilian death toll in Iraq was the lowest since the war began, for those who have lost loved ones in 2010, there was no sense in which the year could represent an ‘improvement’ on 2009. Iraq Body Count recorded 4,167 civilian deaths from violence in 2010 (compared to 5,369 in 2009). Evidence of these deaths was extracted from some 8,250 distinct reports collected from 143 sources, covering 1,685 incidents.

The data collected in 2010 showed the smallest year-on-year reduction (proportionally as well as in absolute terms) since violence levels began to reduce from late 2007 onwards: 2008 reduced deaths by 63% on 2007, 2009 by 50% on 2008, but 2010 only improved by 15% on 2009.

The 2010 data suggested a persistent low-level conflict in Iraq that would continue to kill civilians at a similar rate for years to come.