The war in Iraq, called Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States, began in March, 2003 under the administration of American President George W. Bush and United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair.   There has been much controversy surrounding the motives for the initial invasion, as the suspected weapons of mass destruction, WMDs, that were used to justify the mission were reported a year later to not exist there.  President Bush gave a speech  on May 1, 2003, wherein he declared: “My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”  This speech was given less than two months after the beginning of conflict, and now, more than seven years later, the war is ongoing - with death counts in the thousands every year.  A large majority of these deaths have occurred in the city of Baghdad (see following chart), which is why we have chosen Baghdad as the site of our project.

Within Baghdad, the majority of these deaths are civilian (see below) which is highly problematic, and we feel, warrants further investigation. 

Deaths in Baghdad

       The civilian deaths in this war have been momentous. One simple reason to explain the high count of civilian deaths is the fact that war efforts were concentrated in a highly populated area, and many war-related deaths occured in residential areas (though there are also much more complex theories on why there is a high civilian death rate). The following chart illustrates the magnitude of this war's impact on civilian life by outlining civilian deaths per day in Iraq, by year:

 Source: Iraq Body Count

These are extremely high numbers, especially for a topic that rarely reaches mainstream media.  These deaths occur all over Iraq, but are concentrated in Baghdad, and many occur in residential areas.  Because of the following statistics, we decided to focus part of our project on residential areas as sites of war activity.

        International war laws such as the Geneva Convention regarding both the treatment of prisoners of war (POW’s) and also the protection of civilians has been largely violated, indicated by the staggering civilian death count and news reports of prisoner mistreatment.  While millions have protested over the seven years of this ongoing war,  there was, at least initially, much support from the American people to carry through with this mission.  A poll published by CNN in 2007, however, declared that only 30% of Americans supported the war, indicating a downward trend the longer the engagement went on. Scandals such as detainee torture have added to this skepticism and, in a way, tarnished the war’s credibility.  While these facts are but snapshots of much larger issues, the purpose of the inclusion of this information is to illustrate the hotly contested nature of the Iraq war.

        Another consequence of this war is the large scale displacement that has occurred in Iraq. Millions have fled their homes for safer areas, living in increasingly desperate conditions. Many of those leaving the city of Baghdad have reported to be professionals, including 22,000 physicians.  Ethnic conflicts that had previously been relatively quiet have surged in violence throughout the war.  As Dr. Derek Gregory writes in his paper, Biopolitics of Baghdad,

Though this phenomena is incredibly interesting and the source of much current research, it was not a dimension included in the maps due to limitations of finding accurate data of ethnic concentrations, especially of a practical scale. The maps published of this data are exemplified by this one, created by The Times (UK):

        These maps demonstrate the difficulties we faced in accessing data at a scale accurate enough to project spatially. The above map (and others like it) would be too imprecise when digitized to meaningfully represent spacial distributions of ethnicity.  However, ethnic conflict is an important dimension of the war, and while it is impossible to define any one cause, there is evidence that they have at least been exacerbated by the presence of war.  Therefore, it is possible that some of the deaths classified as civilian included in this study are related to this ethnic conflict, but for reasons outlined above, they are included in the count as war deaths.

        Studies published by the Brookings Institute Iraq Index have indicated a decrease in quality of life in the years following the start of the war, characterised by indicators such as daily hours of electricity accessible to homes, and access to clean water and sewage.  As Human Geography majors, our awareness of these issues and interest in visualizing the presence of this war, and its negative effects on daily life for citizens of Baghdad has led us to embark on this project.  Another reason for our interest in this subject is that we feel that due to the length of this war, public interest and awareness of Iraq war issues have waned over time, and we hope that our visualization contributions through mapping will be important tools for an increase of that awareness and interest.  The well-timed release of the Wikileaks Iraq War data, facilitated an opportunity for us to visualize this important data. The data set is comprised of more than 52,000 individual confidential records of death ‘events’ which resulted in anywhere from 1 - 443 deaths,   Previous to the release of this data, at least 15,000 civilian deaths had been secretly reported by the US Military in Baghdad, but not listed or published.

        The US Military has criticized Wikileaks, calling the release “dangerous” and claiming that the leak has “endangered the lives of US forces and people who support US forces around the world.”   However, this reaction can also be seen as a result of embarrassment, as there has been an increase in criticism of the US Military since the release of these documents (because of misrepresentations of deaths and underreporting, a video of US soldiers killing journalists and civilians, and secret codes admitting to the knowledge of detainee torture practices have been unearthed in the process).  As the Wikileaks data used in this project was confidential documents that were not intended for release, we felt it was a necessity to utilize this data to create physical records of these deaths.  The discrepancy between what was reported to the media and what was recorded in these files was another important factor in why we felt the need to visualize it.  In the process of creating a visual and tangible record of all of the deaths in Baghdad, these maps serve to hold the war, and specifically, the opposing forces, accountable for these deaths.* (see note, bottom of page)

        To introduce you to the complex city of Baghdad, familiarize yourself with this map of Baghdad administrative neighborhoods  and districts, taken from The Institute for the Study Of War. It illustrates the complexity, modernity, and the density of the city which has been host to an ongoing war for more than seven years. Click the map to take you to the full-size version.