Iraq US Military Casualties Map

July 6, 2005 9:40 AM

Iraq Casualties Map. US military casualties from the Iraq war. Each click of the (+) displays 30 more casualties, starting from the beginning of the war. Each soldier is shown in at their home town.
posted by signal (32 comments total)

Actual US military casualties would be something like 10 times this amount. This is just the fatal casualties. In fact, this may be only the combat related fatal casualties. Depressing...
posted by jonson at 9:53 AM on July 6, 2005

Incredibly depressing. I think Shrubya should be forced to start each day seeing this page be updated with the latest deaths as a result of his little pet war.
posted by fenriq at 10:10 AM on July 6, 2005

Just imagine what this would have looked like if it had been around for the Battle of the Somme.
posted by The Dryyyyy Cracker at 10:19 AM on July 6, 2005

I also notice that it's only soldiers carrying US passports. One thing that struck me at the beginning of the war was that foreign nationals use US military service as a means to gain citizenship. It makes me wonder how many US combat deaths are non-citizens.
posted by cali at 10:19 AM on July 6, 2005

I like this, and I'm sending the link to friends, but it's a bit disingenuous to use such big figures on such a little map. It makes it look as if everyone in the US has died. The war is horrible enough without having to dissemble to make one's point.
posted by OmieWise at 10:20 AM on July 6, 2005

I think Shrubya should be forced to start each day seeing this page be updated with the latest deaths as a result of his little pet war.

I think he should be forced to deliver the death announcements personally.

I clicked on one icon and it had the same name, age, and hometown as a former co-worker and freind. I had a momentary freak-out, the Googled for news items and found out it was someone else. I can only imagine what the loved ones of these guys (and the Iraqis) must go through everyfday on that front.
posted by jonmc at 10:23 AM on July 6, 2005

Very nice and elegant use of Google Maps, but how dare you distract me from more important things?
posted by gramschmidt at 10:25 AM on July 6, 2005

OmieWise: “... it’s a bit disingenuous to use such big figures on such a little map....”
Yes, but keep in mind that you can zoom in on a state/town/whatever.
posted by signal at 10:37 AM on July 6, 2005

cali, did you mean to link here? In addition, your family can get the citizenship/immigration benefits that they would have gotten had you lived and applied, should you die. It's a pretty big incentive, especially as the military also awards foreign nationals permanent residence while they serve.

Why recruit in our high schools? You could solve the enrollment problems with one bus ride to Managua and back! Plus you'll be training a crop of fresh Republican voters!
posted by Pollomacho at 10:37 AM on July 6, 2005

Whenever I see something like this I think of all the kids in small town america who are coming back in boxes, disabled, etc.
Just really saddens me. I used to live in a small town (population around 3,000) and something like this would just about kill everyone emotionally.
I just hope this thing ends sooner than later and that there are no more wars, ever . . .
posted by mk1gti at 10:40 AM on July 6, 2005

I like this, and I'm sending the link to friends, but it's a bit disingenuous to use such big figures on such a little map. It makes it look as if everyone in the US has died. The war is horrible enough without having to dissemble to make one's point.

Well, you can zoom in.

Very nice and elegant use of Google Maps, but how dare you distract me from more important things?

Actualy it's pretty bad. Javascript/DHTML can't handle it at all and it takes forever to load.
posted by delmoi at 10:50 AM on July 6, 2005

only the combat related

I googled one name who was killed in an accidental explosion near Mosul while unloading grenades. There are definitely glitches, for example, a soldier from "Queens, N.Y." shows up in Glens Falls (on the whole, the urban concentration of casualties seems beyond mere population density?). Anyway, the site sure is getting hammered to the point of not being so useful right now.
posted by Zurishaddai at 11:00 AM on July 6, 2005

delmoi: “Actualy it’s pretty bad. Javascript/DHTML can’t handle it at all and it takes forever to load.”
Can you imagine how bad it would be if it showed how many Iraqis have died in the occupation?
posted by signal at 11:23 AM on July 6, 2005

Here is another similar map.
posted by euphorb at 11:41 AM on July 6, 2005

I don't understand why people seem to get more worked up about American losses than the 30x more Iraqi losses, many of them women and children.

It doesn't make me feel good about people.
posted by sonofsamiam at 11:49 AM on July 6, 2005

sonofsamiam, do you not care more if someone in your family, or someone you know, gets hurt than someone halfway around the world you read about in the newspaper? If not, you're pretty weird; if so, then don't tell me you "don't understand" this—it's the same principle. Most people extend that "my kin" feeling to their fellow countrymen; you may draw the circle closer, but that shouldn't mean it's impossible for you to understand.

And there are lots better reasons to not feel good about people than the fact that they don't feel equal compassion for every single person in the world (or every sentient entity in the universe; I'm not sure how far your own circle extends).
posted by languagehat at 12:38 PM on July 6, 2005

this'll do till we get a big black wall for this war.
posted by Miles Long at 12:42 PM on July 6, 2005

the military also awards foreign nationals permanent residence while they serve

Foederati
posted by meehawl at 1:55 PM on July 6, 2005

I doubt there will be a big black wall for this war. I have a feeling those in charge will force through something more "narratively heroic".
posted by R. Mutt at 1:57 PM on July 6, 2005

In my case my 'family' extends all the way over to the region. I've got a good friend who I think of like a brother who's Egyptian. His uncle was in the Six Day War and survived an Israeli artillery attack. He never recovered from the shell shock. When I look at Iraqis or Palestinians, or whomever, I think of what it would be like if the tables were turned and we were the Palestinians or Iraqis or whomever experiencing similar hardships. That makes it easier to empathize with their situation than not. I believe it's because of something called the. . . (help me out here, people) conscience.
posted by mk1gti at 1:58 PM on July 6, 2005

delmoi writes "Javascript/DHTML can't handle it at all and it takes forever to load."

And it seems to really be getting hammered now. It would have been nice to be able to zoom right to the end.
posted by Mitheral at 2:06 PM on July 6, 2005

It is a great use for Google maps. Too bad it is so sluggish.
posted by caddis at 2:22 PM on July 6, 2005

It would have been nice to be able to zoom right to the end.

That's what I thought the slider-bar control was for, but it doesn't budge when I click on it.
posted by alumshubby at 2:25 PM on July 6, 2005

It doesn't make me feel good about people.

Let me ask you this, are you as upset when someone you never met across town dies of a heart attack as when it's your next door neighbor and best freind? That's why they call it "hitting close to home."
posted by jonmc at 2:27 PM on July 6, 2005

this may be only the combat related fatal casualties

An incomplete list of civilian contractor deaths, compiled from news reports, is here. That whole site is worth checking out.
posted by the_bone at 2:32 PM on July 6, 2005

languagehat: You're probably right, I'm just weird. I don't see how anyone can empathize less with Iraqi families than American families. Surely they are going through the same pain and suffering that we are.

Personal experience with people who have lost family members in Iraq only heightens my concern for both Americans and Iraqis.

But I really don't want to discuss it any further, and would rather have not brought it up. It's never fun to feel like one has to defend one's emotional reactions; I don't want to do it, and I don't want to make anyone else feel that like they have to. I shouldn't have taken such a judgemental tone at all.
posted by sonofsamiam at 2:43 PM on July 6, 2005

I think Shrubya should be forced to start each day seeing this page be updated with the latest deaths as a result of his little pet war.

I think he should be forced to deliver the death announcements personally.

There are LOTS of ways that Bush can piss you off (how do you pisseth me off, let me count the ways!). For me, it was not going to a SINGLE armed service persons funeral during his first term (that I ever saw, anyway).

One of the first things Dumbya did after he was reelected was to attend a funeral.

Bush's obviously intentional decision not to attend funerals during his reelection bid has got to be one the most heartless, selfish, cynical, coldly calculated acts ever committed by a President.

But, hey, he cares about Africa!!!
posted by joedharma at 4:20 PM on July 6, 2005

sonofsamiam writes "I don't understand why people seem to get more worked up about American losses than the 30x more Iraqi losses, many of them women and children."

I can see where you're coming from. But perhaps a map like this may make Americans not want American soldiers to be killed in Iraq. The soldiers are brought home due to public protest and no more Iraqis are killed. Different reasoning, same result.
posted by meech at 5:05 PM on July 6, 2005

You're probably right, I'm just weird. I don't see how anyone can empathize less with Iraqi families than American families.

But that's not what I asked you; I asked if you "care more if someone in your family, or someone you know, gets hurt than someone halfway around the world you read about in the newspaper." I'm trying to get you to see what's involved here. It's easy to talk vaguely about "Iraqi families" and "American families" in the abstract; I'm trying to get you to realize that you do in fact care more about people close to you, and that this is the same thing on a broader scale. Or what jonmc said more succinctly.
posted by languagehat at 5:37 PM on July 6, 2005

I understand exactly what you mean. I'm not going to discuss it any further.
posted by sonofsamiam at 5:52 PM on July 6, 2005

Meh. Damned flash bogged down my 'puter till I had to ctl+alt+del my browser.
posted by Doohickie at 6:23 PM on July 6, 2005

I'm trying to get you to realize that you do in fact care more about people close to you, and that this is the same thing on a broader scale.

The increasing tendency of moderns humans to feel fleeting sympathy for "outsiders" distant from our immediate kin but mediated through news relays was predicted by Adam Smith in Moral Sentiments a while ago. He explores at great length a posited qualitative difference between visceral and intellectual sympathy.:

Let us suppose that the great empire of China, with all its myriads of inhabitants, was suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake, and let us consider how a man of humanity in Europe, who had no sort of connexion with that part of the world, would be affected upon receiving intelligence of this dreadful calamity. He would, I imagine, first of all, express very strongly his sorrow for the misfortune of that unhappy people, he would make many melancholy reflections upon the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of all the labours of man, which could thus be annihilated in a moment. He would too, perhaps, if he was a man of speculation, enter into many reasonings concerning the effects which this disaster might produce upon the commerce of Europe, and the trade and business of the world in general. And when all this fine philosophy was over, when all these humane sentiments had been once fairly expressed, he would pursue his business or his pleasure, take his repose or his diversion, with the same ease and tranquillity, as if no such accident had happened. The most frivolous disaster which could befal himself would occasion a more real disturbance. If he was to lose his little finger to-morrow, he would not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he will snore with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred millions of his brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own.

posted by meehawl at 6:16 AM on July 7, 2005