This thesis studies the history of displacement in modern Iraq and the current
displacement crisis, as well as the human experience of the war and and the role of personal
lives in the war's events. Among the major causes of displacement in Iraq are: 1) the purposeful
displacement policies and harsh practices of the Ba'ath regime under Saddam Hussein; 2) the
disposal of this regime at the hands of the U.S.-led Coalition forces in 2003, creating a power
vacuum in a country replete with ethnic and sectarian tension, while not providing the
necessary security to protect civilians, prevent looting, or guard Iraq's borders; and 3) the
growth of sectarian violence in this power vacuum, particularly with the influx of Al-Qaeda
suicide bombers over the open borders, which became a full-blown civil war upon the bombing
of the Al-Askari mosque in 2006. These factors have led to over four million displaced,
approximately half of them as internally displaced persons in Iraq, and half as refugees in
neighboring countries and abroad. There are vast measures that must be taken in order to amend
the causes and consequences of Iraq's recent mass displacement, among them establishing
security, tending to the needs of the internally displaced, rebuilding infrastructure, and
addressing both the polarization of Iraq's cities and the gaps left behind by the mass flight of
Iraq's moderate and educated classes.
A primary purpose of this thesis is to bring the experiences of war and displacement to
life through the stories of Iraqis themselves, and to demonstrate the role of the "personal" in the
political arena of war. This study, therefore, seeks to provide an "inside" view of the war's
events and major players as seen by Iraqis who lived through the war (now living as refugees in
the United States) and who were interviewed by the author in March and April of 2010.