I'm struck by how much more sharply the ethnic boundaries seem to be drawn. At first I thought their methodology on that was questionable (basically they just seemed to have asked people to recall what neighborhoods were like before the war vs. now), but then I decided that to some extent perception is reality.
It may be true that that the people living in Neighborhood X are only slightly different in terms of Sunni/Shiite breakdown now vs. in 2003, but if the perception is that it is now "Sunni territory," that has a gigantic impact.
Jeebus. Note how nicely the incidents in which more than 10 people are killed by bombs stay within the Sunni/Shia mixed areas.
Our whole country is transfixed by one gunman and 33 deaths; if this were a daily occurrence, would we be upset that no one reported the good news?
Gawd, can you imagine if the news shows had presented the VT shootings against a "good news" context? "We're still not anywhere near as bad as Iraq! Woohoo!"
From the map it seems that the Sunni are the aggressors. The are relatively few attacks in the Sunni areas.
re: 5
I'm not sure that's a fair perception though. It's been my impression from news reports that the majority of the shooting incidents (rather than bombs) have been carried out by Shia 'death squads'.
Yeah, I think it speaks more to different methods.
Also, they took their numbers from Iraq Body Count, which IIRC is skewed toward the events that have been covered by U.S. media. I can think of a lot of reasons why people could die in Iraq and not make the US papers.
From the map it seems that the Sunni are the aggressors. The are relatively few attacks in the Sunni areas.
Sunni's are the ones with the military expertise. Shia retribution is heavy on the kidnapping and execution. A lot of the dumped bodies being found are Sunni.
they took their numbers from Iraq Body Count
This is important, since it means that even the horrific totals on the chart are underestimates.
Yes. Very important. Not one casualty there, for instance, appears to be the result of the well-attested US practice of returning fire when shelled froma civilian area.
Does Iraq Body Count only use U.S. media? I thought there data set was slightly larger than that.
What's really eerie is how this map fits onto the map of U.S. Army Lt. Tyrone Slothrop's sexual conquests ... oh, wait, wrong war, sorry.
Does Iraq Body Count only use U.S. media? I thought there data set was slightly larger than that.
Sorry, yes, you're right. It includes media "that have attained a respected international status" and have English-language websites. My apologies for being sloppy.