Walls and shadows

Roy Scranton

City, 2007, vol. 11, issue 3, 277-292

Abstract: This paper discusses the American occupation of Baghdad as the author experienced it, as a soldier in the United States Army. It considers issues related to the urban nature of his war experience and the way that the occupation seemed to work in and affect the city. Specifically, it looks at how the military occupation’s focus on defense created a segregated city, dividing Americans from Iraqis in ways that served not only to terrorize the population but to undermine the occupation itself. The paper examines the complex dynamics of urban occupation from the author’s particular vantage, exploring how technology, doctrine, psychology, and tactics interrelate in the high‐stress combat environment. Drawing wider conclusions from his experience, the author argues that the occupation of Baghdad offers a bleak vision of our urban future, a future where security for the few promotes a violent anarchy for the many, a future of walls and the shadows they cast.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1080/13604810701687993

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