war maps

war map, 2013
silkscreen

awareness is key to understanding our place in the world. it may simply be through interactions with individuals, consumer decisions, or activism — but awareness is crucial to learn about our surroundings and how we may affect our surroundings.

our society has grown increasingly apathetic to war, predominantly because we cannot even comprehend the extent of it any more as it is no longer a daily discussion, nor does it seem to affect our immediate everyday routines. war has become an action executed covertly by our government, and fought only by a small percentage of our citizens. the rest of us can live life without even thinking about war and/or its effects on our world, our society and the societies more closely affected. Less than 0.5% of the population is currently serving in the us armed forces,⁽¹⁾ with over 665 billion dollars allocated for military defense, within the broader defense budget which represents 23% of the estimated federal annual budget for 2014.⁽²⁾

(1) Less than 0.5 percent of the population serves in the armed forces, compared with more than 12 percent during World War II. Even fewer of the privileged and powerful shoulder arms. In 1975, 70 percent of members of Congress had some military service; today, just 20 percent do, and only a handful of their children are in uniform. [source]
(2) usgovernmentspending.com | us military spending

the united states is currently engaged in seven military campaigns all under the guise of the war on terror, also know as the global war on terrorism, or the overseas contingency operation. (information as of 2013).

the term was coined by the bush administration in september 2001. though the obama administration uses the term, overseas contingency operation, the ongoing conflicts are still a result of the vast and vague war on terror. the conflict is used to describe the military as well as political opposition to groups designated as either “terrorist” or the regimes found supporting them — typically, militant islamist groups such as al-qaeda. the war on terror is an on-going and open-ended conflict that officially started on 07 october 2001.

the united states campaign currently involves the following wars:

• war in afghanistan: operation enduring freedom (07 october 2001-present): fall of the taliban government, targeting al-qaeda and taliban insurgency and the death of osama bin laden.
• al-qaeda insurgency in yemen (14 june 2010-present): fighting insurgency; use of cia drone strikes.
• war in north-west pakistan, operation freedom eagle (16 march 2004-present): insurgency and fata under taliban control; use of cia drone strikes.
• operation enduring freedom – horn of africa (07 october 2002-present): combating terrorism throughout eight african nations and the gulf of aden.
• operation enduring freedom – trans sahara (06 february 2007 – present): counter-terrorism and policing of arms across central africa. including alleged threats of al-qaeda operating in algeria, chad, mali, mauritania, niger, senegal, nigeria and morocco.
• operation enduring freedom – philippines or operation freedom eagle (15 january 2002-present): targeting the communist insurgency and islamic terrorist groups. us armed forces working with cia covert forces.
• operation enduring freedom – caribbean & central america (2008 – present): counter terrorism.
• the iraq war, operation iraqi freedom (march 2003-01 september 2010) was also considered part of the global war on terror which included the fall of the ba’ath party government and the execution of saddam hussein. 18 december 2011 saw the final withdrawal of us troops.

a june 2011 academic report covering additional areas of spending related to the war estimated it through 2011 at $2.7 trillion, and long term spending at $5.4 trillion including interest.⁽³⁾
(3) cost of war | nationalpriorities.org

these images were created overlapping a map of a region the us is actively engaged with (from the list above), typically with drone attacks, and a us region or capital of decision-making, ie; washington dc, albany, new york city, etc. the text is sourced from online news outlets, typically cut and pasted, over-layed, lightened, and blacked-out — aimed at making the text mostly illegible, it represents the fact that even though we are so far removed, we have so much information at our disposal. often too much — it all becomes noise. like an advertisement then, these posters become moments of too much information and lots of noise — almost unclear of its own message. less anti- or pro-war, these are meant to act as markers for our own assessment. the viewer questions their material and can then choose to become more or less aware of the situation.

r e l a t e d :   w a r   o n   t e r r o r

war on terror, 2013
lithograph and silkscreen
edition of 12
30 x 22 in. | 72 x 56 cm
printed by anna hoberman / afternoon editions