UPDATE: Several people have asked for a map showing various areas and locations around Baghdad. I have posted it at the end of the diary. Due to the width limit on images, it is a bit crowded. I will try to make a cleaner, updated version and post it from time-to-time to track the situation in the city. Thanks to everyone for the helpful information and kind words.
Tonight, the Fabulous Leader will present his new plan for escalating us to "victory" in Iraq. His recommendations, two months in the making, are likely to be based largely on the work of Fred Kagan at the American Enterprise Institute. Kagan's report, called "Choosing Victory," is, in fact, a 56-page PowerPoint presentation in which critical thinking is replaced by bullet points.
I will try to get to expose some of the logical flaws later. But right now I want to direct your attention to maps used to show critical sectarian divides in the city.
Here is the present situation according to AEI:
Wow, look at all those Sunni! No wonder the report proposes going after the Sunni militias first. Between the "Mansour" district and that upside-down-Nevada-looking area next to Sadr City, the Sunni are taking over the town.
But something looked odd about this map to me. I couldn't quite place what was wrong with it, so I decided to make a more accurate map and apply the same sectarian divisions:
This map shows populated areas of Baghdad. Areas used by government buildings, orchards, cropland, railway yards, etc have been removed. Certainly, some people live on the land outside the colored areas, and that land could still come under militia control, but for purposes of providing security to urban areas, this is a more accurate representation.
But wait, something is missing. Obviously, I left out most of the "Mansour" area, right? Well... no. Here is what I left out:
Yes, Baghdad International Airport and its security perimeter dwarfs the Green Zone and is even larger than Sadr City.
I don't know if the inaccuracy of the AEI map is intentional. It seems hard to understand how anyone could draw Baghdad International as a tiny dot or connect a few sparse blocks as one massive district. Does it matter? If you are proposing the deployment of US troops into a combat zone, I would argue it does.
Furthermore, you might want to send the troops to the right place. Many of the place names on the AEI's map didn't jibe with other sources. I can't say authoritatively that they are wrong, but here are the problems I found:
Kadhimiya (the place where Saddam Hussein was executed) is east of the Shu'la district where AEI placed it. The Karrada neighborhood is located just across the river from the Green Zone, not on top of the Rasheed Airport. Adhamiyah appears to be west of the Army Canal, not east. And the name of the district labeled "Mansour" by AEI? Abu Ghraib.
None of this addresses whether the AEI's information on the sectarian composition of neighborhoods is correct or not. Reports on Juan Cole's site indicate the Shiite militias have eliminated Sunnis from most areas east of the Army Canal and are now working on the area between the canal and the Tigris. Who knows what the map will look like by March.
Errata: The AEI map indicates a small, narrow strip of Sunni area just east of the river in central Baghdad. It is incorrectly shown as Shiite on my map. Unless someone wants to hire me for their think tank, I will correct it when I have some more free time. Till then, don't deploy any troops.
UPDATE: As per The Angry Rakkasan, the populated portion of the Dora area should be larger. This is the area directly below the Karrada area. (I am looking into this, but my sources say the current map is close)
NEW: This map shows many of the neighborhoods, places, and streets you hear about in news reports. If anyone has updates, lease contact me.
And I should have included my references:
AEI's "Choosing Victory:" [PDF file]
http://www.aei.org/...
NIMA Baghdad Map [1.6mb jpeg]
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/...
Green Zone & Airport satellite image, Globalsecurity.org
http://www.globalsecurity.org/...