War and Its Trails: Tracing Some Threads in Iraq's Continuum of Violence

Abstract

The fieldwork that led to this article consisted of two separate trips to Iraq, one in 2010 and one in 2011, of about three months each. In both of these instances, I conducted participant observation in physicians' offices, hospitals, homes, and the offices of a medical development NGO based in Iraq that works with children with congenital heart disease (CHD). I conducted both formal and informal interviews, the majority of which were with parents and families affected by CHD in Iraq, though most other persons involved in the treatment of this disease in Iraq were represented— including local medical workers, foreign medical workers, foreign aid/NGO workers, fathers, mothers, uncles, and two previous patients themselves—one female and one male—who were old enough to be interviewed. Local participants were predominantly (Sunni) Kurds and Shia Arabs, but Sunni Arabs and Yezidi Kurds were also represented.