o the left is the map we created when it was clear the USA was going to invade Iraq and blow what should have been the surgical demise of Osama Bin Laden. This slide was created for and used in the opening briefing to the SES course on national security at the Western Management Development Center, and in 19 briefings around the country to the American Committees on Foreign Relations (ACFR).
The only really decent conflict map, now out of production, is Berto Jongman's World Conflict & Human Rights Map also available in a Simplified World Conflict Map.
Notes: If bin Laden could have asked his maker for the most helpful possible American reaction to 9-11, he could not have done better than the Bush Administration’s ill-considered conventional military attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. The US is now an occupying force in Iraq, and in Afghanistan it has lost control of the entire country, where under US “non-control” the opium crop has doubled, enriching all the warlords, who will be almost impossible to dislodge without resuming combat operations. We have started a six-front 100-year war.
To the right is a later version used in private briefings.