Documented work · 2004
One year after the Iraq invasion
This Flash work was first documented in 2004. Its page title used a misspelled form of “anniversary,” while contemporary labels more clearly called it “1 year in Iraq.”
Key facts
- Documented title
- Misspelled “anniversary” title
- First documented
- 2004
- Delivery format
- Macromedia Flash short, 550 × 400 pixels
- File
swf/year.swf
Contemporary labels
- “1 year in iraq”
- “usama bin laden”
What is known
A milestone frame supplied by date and contemporary labels
The 2004 date, the filename year.swf and the one-year label identify the historical milestone. Another contemporary label named Osama bin Laden, showing that at least one person sharing it connected the work to the wider post-September 11 political frame.
Those two labels do not establish a sequence. They may refer to separate moments, a comparison, a quotation or simply a summary by the person sharing it.
Historical context
Anniversaries organize public memory
The first anniversary of the March 2003 invasion produced assessments of stated goals, human costs, security claims and the developing occupation. Anniversary journalism and commentary use elapsed time as structure: a date invites comparison between expectation and outcome.
On the web, a dated animation could circulate beyond the day itself because the URL remained stable. Old links then carried the milestone into later debates, even as political circumstances changed around it.
Context, not synopsis
The historical context on this page is background to the public issue named in the work’s title and contemporary labels, not a synopsis of the animation.