The term "political maps" has a whole new meaning

Below is an interesting animation promising "5,000 Years of History in 90 Seconds".  I cannot pass that up.  The map shows occupations in the Middle East and Central Asia over the last 5,000 years.




Much as I enjoyed the map, I found myself a bit leery of the site in general (red flag-- adverts on the page underwritten by FoxNews and Scientology.org, or statements pronouncing the death of the American dollar) and began to wonder-- who is making this map, and for what purpose?  What is their agenda?  Since it differs (I can only assume) from my own, liberal, Democratic, godless Commie beliefs, do they have an ax to grind with this map?  I have watched the animation a few times through and still find it more or less politically neutral, but viewing other maps on the site give me great pause.

One illustration (Leadership and War) shows all wars and police actions and what have you from American history, from the colonial era on, with a handy sidebar that shows which political party started which campaign, and associated deaths.  The deaths are tallied and attributed to each party.  I certainly hope that only Republicans were good enough to die in Republican actions, and vice versa.  You might otherwise get the impression that all Americans served in all American conflicts, or something.  The animation ends with a sidebar labeled "Republican Wars" and "Democrat Wars".  Real cute, MapsOfWar.com.  Below is the map.



In late 2001 into '02 and '03, we went through a sort of hysteria phase in American politics and society. French fries were renamed "Freedom Fries" and French's mustard had to defend themselves from anti-French rhetoric.  I had thought that we as a nation were moving away from such nonsense.  However, at a time when, according to one newly-published book, one can only be seen as on the side of "patriots" or of "pinheads" (the implication, of course, is that liberals cannot be patriots), when a majority-elected president has to constantly affirm and re-affirm his status as an American, or as a Christian, and when even something as comfortably dull as a map becomes a propaganda piece.... I must say it gives me pause.