General Myers spent four years as the top U.S.military officer, starting just weeks after the September 11 attacks in 2001, through the early successes in Afghanistan and Iraq and the beginning of the Iraqi insurgency, and ending in late 2005, just before the major outbreak of violence in Iraq and well before the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan during the last two years.

VOA: standard.2009.10.16

More troubling is that the Iraqi insurgency has been partly funded by oil-sector corruption.

FORBES: The Energy Underworld

That clearly the Iraqi insurgency started romping up in the spring of 2003 and just kept going since then.

NPR: Fact-Checking the State of the Union Speech

At the same time, the Iraqi insurgency's apparent lack of a coherent programme other than violence has whittled away much outside support.

ECONOMIST: The Arab neighbours