U.S. Marines prepare to deploy from Camp Ramadi.
"America will change our strategy to help the Iraqis carry out their campaign to put down sectarian violence and bring security to the people of Baghdad. This will require increasing American force levels. So I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq."
—President Bush, announcing his new surge strategy on January 10
A little more than a month after the Iraq Study Group warns that the situation in Iraq is "grave and deteriorating," President Bush announces changes in political and military strategy in Iraq. Part of what the White House calls "The New Way Forward" — and what nearly everyone else calls the surge — involves an influx of 21,500 more troops into Iraq. The price tag of the additional 12-month deployments is estimated to be up to $27 billion. After months of claiming the war in Iraq is improving, Bush concedes that his policies are not working. His proposed solution faces immediate opposition from Democrats.