STUDENTS:
For your homework, actively (that means take some notes!) read and listen to these links.
Read and view at least two historical and current links.
Write a response to the one you feel most strongly about in the Comments section of this post, and use one direct quote from the source in your response.
HIstorical Links and connections:
"Back to My Lai" 60 Minuteshttp://www.cbsnews.com/videos/
"The Cost of Campaigns" NY Times video links campaign abuses then and now
http://nyti.ms/1yQqDKT
"Paying Respects, Pentagon Revives War Over Truth, Then and Now" NY Times
http://nyti.ms/1xvOs77
Current Links and connections:
"Kurdish Women Fight on Front Lines Against ISIS" Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/articles/kurdish-women-fight-on-front-line-against-islamic-state-1413580188
"The Horror Before the Beheadings" New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/world/middleeast/horror-before-the-beheadings-what-isis-hostages-endured-in-syria.html?ref=world
"A Woman, A Kurd, and an Optimist" New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/world/europe/20iht-letter20.html
"Who, What and Where is ISIL? Explaining the Islamic State" Al Jazeera America
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/18/isil-threat-explained.html
 |
| Female fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) sit down for lunch in the group’s mountain stronghold of Qandil. Unlike the peshmerga in socially conservative Iraqi Kurdistan, the PKK includes female fighters. |
I watched the video on the My Lai Massacre. I never knew that two American troops tried to stop the massacre. Watching this video was hard because you could see the pain in Thompsons eyes even though he did the right thing he kept apologizing for the other soldiers, which to me means that he doesn't see himself as a hero he just thinks of it as doing what was morally right. Thompson said, "I kept thinking as I picked him up that I have a boy that same age". The people who were killed were innocent women, children, and elderly people. Thompson kept saying, "I don't know how anyone could kill these people, they were of no treat to them". These men truly did the right thing and they are prideful of that but still don't forget the ones who were killed.
ReplyDeleteThe article that I read was "Who, What and Where is ISIL? Explaining the Islamic State" it brought to light the key question of who what and where. In there explanation of who ISIL/ISIS is they used the names Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to tell us who it is that they are talking about. This is telling us that the area that ISIS is in are regions of Iraq and Syria. The article tells us that ISIS is different from other terrorist group because of there approach. They establish what it calls a caliphate and inposes a harsh interpretation of islamic laws. The article also tells us that ISIS has been eliminating other groups and gaining fighters by getting the support of poor impoverished areas. Lastly the article states that ISIS has become self suficient due to oil that they are selling. In the article it says "ISIL’s ascent is partly a product of the group’s ability to fund itself through proceeds from captured oil fields, which generate up to $2 million from 50,000 barrels per day". With this ISIS is going to stay a threat to the world and is not going to go away any time soon.
ReplyDeleteThe link that I read was, "The Horror Before the Beheadings". Many different prisons are found in Syria, hidden by the Islamic States or what we know here as ISIS. The prisons are hidden underground, where the suffering of hostages they keep is beyond our imagination. James Foley was a man who was taken by the Islamic States around December 2012, when he vanished in Syria. As days and months went on, he became to rely on the other hostages and soon changed his name to a muslim name, Abu Hamza. Mr. Foley found out that they knew about his family when ISIS started asking personal questions like, "Who cried at your brothers wedding? Who was the captain of your high school soccer team?" Over 14 months went by, 23 foreigners at the least, most being freelance journalists like Mr. Foley were captured. By December of 2013, Mr. Foley's family had received many emails from ISIS. I can't imagine what that family was feeling. In August, Mr. Foley's family received their last letter from him. The family could tell that Mr. Foley knew the end was near. Later that month, ISIS shared the video to the world of James Foley, Abu Hamza, being beheaded after several months of being held a hostage. What an emotionless, awful thing for a family to have to go through, and it's still going on to this day. Live everyday to the fullest capability.
ReplyDeleteI also watched the "Back to Mi Lai" about the repercussions of the massacre that took place in March, 1968. I believe the pilot, Hugh Thompson, was trying to do he right thing, saving civilians, however, he, IN MY OPINION, IS WRONG. He had no right to testify against the soldiers who were involved in the massacre. It is WAR, and shit happens in war. Thompsons' quote, "There's a big difference between killing in war, and cold-blooded murder" is out of context, and therefor invalid. I like his quote, but i do not think applies here. I think he means well, and did do the right thing, attempting to save civilians, however, later trying to punish Americans for their actions in war is not American- in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI chose the Back to My Lai video. I just cannot get my head around why people do those things to other people, it is utterly senseless. I get that the war was pretty unpopular, but I can't help but wander if it was because of things like this that the war was so unpopular to begin with. killing soldiers who are trying to kill you is one thing, in a situation like that its a survival thing. I really cant fault people for surviving, but when you start killing women and children then i take serious issue with that. Its just wrong and its a shame that the soldiers were never really punished for it.
ReplyDeleteI chose the Back to My Lai video. I was amazed when i heard that the soldiers in the chopper saw what was happening and went to stop it even though it was against their own people. I also liked when he spoke with a man who was involved in the killings. The man says "At the time I felt like I was doing the right thing." this to me shows that as a soldier in battle he felt like he was following orders and doing what was "right" even if it did not make sense to any of the soldiers. I found it amazing that some of the elders thanked Thompson for helping instead of feeling like he was still the enemy.
ReplyDeleteI chose the "Back To My Lai" video, I do not agree with Hugh Thompson what so ever. It was war, the people killed were on the opposing side of the United States, if it was the other way around you can bet your ass the V.C. would have done the same thing. In war you do what you can to get your point across, to hurt the other side, and what better way then to attack their home front? Yes I realize if it happened to us we would have the same feeling, but war is war and shit happens. For Hugh Thompson to contemplate "shooting the U.S. troops" is complete bullshit, they were doing what they were ordered to do, which is what they get payed to do. If any one should have been punished it should have been, the helicopter crew and piolt, they were comitting treason, in a way, by going agaist the higher power (a Lt.).
ReplyDeleteI watched the "Back to My Lai" video. I chose this video because I had already done some research on the my lai massacre for our exploration earlier this semester. After watching this video I feel like Hugh Thompson and his crew did the right thing. I think Thompson made the right decision because it make no sense what so ever to kill hundreds of innocent unarmed civilians. I understand that the it is war and when the enemy is like the V.C. who can easily blend in with the civilian population, it is frustrating and difficult for the foot solders to identify who the real enemy is and sometimes they make a mistake in identifying the threat and accidentally kill an innocent civilian. However , it doesn't seem reasonable to mistake 170 some unarmed women and children as the V.C. and kill them all. Therefore I believe whatever charlie company did in My Lai was wrong and it seems right to agree with Thompson when he say "-this act seems similar to something the Nazis did in world war 2"
ReplyDeleteI read the article called "Paying Respects, Pentagon Revives War Over Truth, Then and Now" by the New York Times. This article was about the 50th anniversary commemoration that is being created by the Pentagon. This would be a great eye opener to the American public if it were accurate. The website that has been created makes the Vietnam war sound honorable and scholarly. The Pentagon states that the website will "provide the American public with historically accurate materials." Just through the little research we have done during class, I have learned a lot about what happened during the war and all the brutal events that happened and how badly both the American and Vietnamese were hurt. One protestors stated, "If you conduct a war, you shouldn't be in charge of narrating it." The commemoration would be a great idea to show the public what really happened, but the way the Pentagon is approaching the topic is very one sided.
ReplyDeleteI read the article "Who, What, and Where is ISIL? Explaining the Islamic State." This article talked about who ISIL, also known as ISIS, is and where they are located. However there were two things that stood out to me in the article. First, "The CIA estimates that ISIL is comprised of more than 30,000 fighters, of whom about half are foreign, including at least 2,000 who hold Western passports.". With at least 2,000 members having Western Passports they have the ability to come after the US inside of our country. Second, "ISIL’s ascent is partly a product of the group’s ability to fund itself through proceeds from captured oil fields, which generate up to $2 million from 50,000 barrels per day". With ISIL being able to easily fund their group through these oil fields there comes a positive and a negative both mentioned in the article. With ISIL's large infrastructure they have built up they are much more visible to us than Al-Qaeda ever was. However, while they are more visible they also will have plenty of money to enlarge their terrorist group and keep this war against them continuing for a long while.
ReplyDeleteThe video i felt most strongly about was the My Lai massacre. It just amazes me that even a country like us, who fights for peace so much and so often, can commit a crime like this. Even though there is so much bad associated with this, there is a little bit of good. At least when so many american troops were doing the wrong thing, two did the right thing and saved many people. "Why did they do this, what were they thinking? I think they just had inept, incompetent leaders on the ground that day." You can hear the disgust in Thompson's voice as he talks about the event.
ReplyDelete"Congress finally cleaned up the system" this video disgusted me. There should never have been anything to clean up in our system of government. People shouldn't be allowed to buy their votes and buy the system. Our system has become so corrupt throughout our days and it seems like only the rich can be powerful in our society.
ReplyDeleteI read the article "horror before the beheadings", I had no idea about what was going on with Isis, this was an eye Article about the horrors that theprisoners went threw. There were many from all over the world. They were also treated differently depending on the likelyhood of the ransom being paid. Some also switched to the Islamic religion, "Let’s convert so that we can get better treatment". There was hope in between the groups they were thrown around to, some groups threatened their lives others talked lf release.
ReplyDeleteI read "A women, a Kurd and an optimist." It was basically about a Kurd women who became the first women elected elected to the Turkish Parliament. She originally dropped out of elementary school because she didn't know Turkish. Then she learned because of her children and then 3 years after being elected for the parliament she was arrested for being apart of the considered terrorism group PKK for 10 years. That didn't change her views on wanting "Turk and Kurds" to get along. She also spoke Kurd for one of the first times. Now Turkey has allowed Kurd to be spoken. It's not even that she says, "The view was: If you are a man, you have value; if you are a woman, you don’t. This narrow-mindedness had to be shattered. A woman is equal to a man. However, in this change of balances, men should not be enslaved while women find their freedom. The goal is to walk shoulder to shoulder together.” I think it's crazy that things like this are still going on when these ideas are drastically different here. It made me realize how lucky I am and how inspiring a single person can be.
ReplyDeleteI decided to read the article "Who, what and where is ISIL? Explaining the Islamic State". I knew a decent amount of information about ISIS or ISIL before reading this article, however by reading it I gained a greater understand on what info is true/false. The fact I found intriguing was the amount of enemies ISIS has made. I knew that they had upset Europe, the United States, and parts of Asia, but had no idea they had made enemies with other groups and terrorist organizations in the middle east! The one piece of information that scared me was how much money the group has. "With a $2 billion war chest, the group pays fighters $400 per month — twice what other similar groups offer. ISIL is considered powerful and self-sufficient, hardly vulnerable to sanctions." I previously knew that they have gotten money from oil trading/monopolizing, but no where near that extent. Unfortunately it sounds like we will not be exiting this war anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteI chose to read "The Horror Before the Beheadings" and honestly, prior to reading the article I did not know much about the beheadings committed by ISIS. I know that ISIS have taken hostages and kept them in custody, and also know that they executed them, but I did not know that they publicly released videos of the beheadings that they committed. But the fact that this story was also able to reach the public really blows my mind, it's almost a first person account on the happenings as to being Mr. Foley. The one thing that really caught my eye in the article was, " 'They checked my tablet. Then they undressed me completely. I was naked. They looked to see if there was a GPS chip under my skin or in my clothes. Then they started beating me. They Googled ‘Marcin Suder and C.I.A.,’ ‘Marcin Suder and K.G.B.’ They accused me of being a spy.' " as Mr. Suder stated. It just showed the senseless violence that ISIS was willing to commit in order to prove a point.
ReplyDeleteI watched the back to My Lai video. I believe that what charlie company did in My Lai was very wrong. I think killing hundreds of innocent people based on the assumption that they might be associated with the v.c. is not justifiable. And I completely support the actions of Hugh Thompson and agree when they say that "there is a difference between killing in war and murdering in cold blood" and in this case I think it was murdering hundreds of people In Cold blood.
ReplyDelete