In post 9/11 America, it is not very common to see a book that doesn 't portray the men and women of the United States Military in a positive light. Most Americans regard all soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines as heroes who have a strong moral compass and always try to do the right thing. However the reality can be quite different. The reality of war is that it is dirty, ugly, and rarely, if ever, a glorious affair. All armies throughout history have had their share of incidents that they would rather forget and the modern US Army is no different.…
This book transports you to the days of the brutal crisis in Vietnam and gives you a soldier’s realistic perspective on the war. O’Brien describes his own internal struggles between his morality…
Later in the excerpt, O’Brien fabricates the Vietnamese soldier’s identity and desires. The potential that O’Brien describes forces the readers to consider that human life is unilaterally valued on a fundamental level. O’Brien’s use of diction, imagery, and storytelling serves the purpose of making the reader of this excerpt think about the value placed on human life and the way we characterize others.…
Often, authors use literature as a way to explain a concept or subject that one may not have witnessed themselves. In the novel, "Under The Persimmon Tree", Suzanne Fisher Staples writes a historical fiction story about two main characters, Najmah and Nusrat. During the novel, Staples gives countless examples of what life would feel like to be under the control of the Taliban, an Islamic terrorist group. Najmah is a young girl who lives in the Kunduz Province, Northern Afghanistan. Najmah faces several conflicts right from the beginning of the book.…
F: How does the way O’Brien structures his work inform the themes and messages he develops? The way O’Brien structures his work through the use of narrative storytelling, direct quotation, and recurring motifs help emphasize the themes of post-war hardships, emotional weakness, and guilt . O’Brien uses common motifs of amoral decision making, isolation, and moral ambiguity. The motifs set the path for the book because O’Brien creates a novel about a group of men who endure the mental and physical fight on war.…
Dick Couch writes a thought-provoking book, A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent Battlespace, which details a growing problem in the United States military, i.e. maintaining ethical and moral behavior on and off-duty. His supporting arguments are society emphasizes behavior not conducive to promoting positive ethical behavior, malignant personalities in the ranks spreading negative behavior, and the ambiguity of the asymmetric warfare fought today. He provides anecdotal evidence supporting the US military’s methodology to combat these trends. However, his true strength lies in the combat stories of ethical dilemmas related to him through soldiers serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and advice given for junior officers and…
The author chronicles events that he witnessed firsthand, thus shedding light on the US military culture of hostile attitude towards women then. Completing his work in 2013, Shadley reveals that he was profoundly appalled by sexual harassment in the military and expresses concerns that no sufficient intervention has occurred to curb the vice. The book has a…
American perceptions of people in Islamic countries is a commonly investigated as a way to judge American awareness and level of social understanding of the world at large, but little consideration has gone into what many of these people in Islamic Countries think about the United States. The perceptions of these people regarding Americans is just as important in understanding the social disconnect between the two separated worlds and the stereotypes, misconceptions, and suspicion that created the void between them. A perfect example of these perceptions can be found in the people of Afghanistan, which has a long history of interaction with the United States on many levels, including some with a rather derogatory connotation. These perceptions are even available to the American public, in the form of a popular novel, The Kite Runner, which subtly introduces these perceptions throughout the history of Afghanistan. Despite this, the perceptions of Islamic peoples on the United States go unconsidered and unnoticed, despite their significant relevance in the consideration of the relationship between the two peoples.…
Often time, wars are believed and seen as a mean to defend the home nation from physical catastrophe of foreign land and soldiers are praised and honored for their sacrifice. Not often enough do the common people take the time to scrape the surface with sayings like “thank you for your time” to look at the understanding that even though a war “makes men” and unites them, Hynes says that it isolates and cuts them off from other people. We are also controlled into believing that we understand exactly how a soldier feels from what the media broadcast to us, and then we take that false understanding and channels it to a way that we think may help soldiers deal with their traumas or past. The truth that the media provide has been filtered out enough…
The article discusses the “Focused Question Card Strategy”. The strategy is used to help students revise their work by using the help from their peers. The strategy is used to soften the task of the writer revising and editing their own paper. The FQC is used to allow the students to become the reader of their own written works in order for their written text could be understood by other readers. The key points that I got out the article is stated in the previous sentences.…
Due to a lack of Firearms Licensing Officers at this time, we are temporarily halting the Guard Permit Section until further notice to keep our focus on the Personal Protection Permit Section. By default, all currently active Guard Card applications are set on hold and will continue as normal once the section gets re-opened. We apologise for any inconveniences caused by this decision and hope to return to normal as soon as possible. You will be updated once this happens, follow the Licensing Desk for additional…
Alex K. Rich and Gerson Moreno-Riano are the authors of the article War on Terror. Gerson Moreno-Riano earned a doctorate in Philosophy and a Master of Arts degree in political science from the University of Cincinnati (Rich, 2016, p.7). The purpose of this article is to explain the overview and understanding on how the war on terrorism is fought. Although the authors mention several effect that war has throughout the world, the authors argue that the war on terror causes the largest impact because it includes military operations. In paragraph one, the author establishes a setting by providing significant terrorist groups, locations and time.…
Victims, perpetrators, and bystanders all have a very key, very relevant part in wars. Some are worse than others but it can come down to opinion. Victims are the abused ones that should be helped. Perpetrators are those following orders and don’t always have a choice and bystanders are those that chose not to help another human being. Bystanders are the worst in my opinion.…
In “Great to Watch,” Maggie Nelson talks about the ways in which violence has become a norm in everyday culture and the process through which people’s “blameless ignorance” leads them to ignore the ramifications of violence (Nelson, 300). In “Selections from Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other,” Sherry Turkle claims that when children spend a lot of time around life-like toys like Furbies and Tamagotchis, children experience a shift from a “psychology of projection to a new psychology of engagement” (Turkle, 290). In “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism,” Jonathan Lethem discusses the gift and market economies and how they overlap in their primary purpose. Nelson’s view of people accepting violence…
In life, we encounter many dilemmas and often have to determine what is right and wrong for the moral good of ourselves. One person’s morals may completely differ from another 's and this book displays it vividly. Men that dedicate their lives to serving their country sometimes find themselves in difficult debates quite like these. In the book, A Few Good Men, by Aaron Sorkin, Colonel Jessep was faced with the decision to either defend his nation or to let two of his own men take the fall for Santiago’s death. A similar ethical issue is when Corporal Downey and Corporal Dawson have to make the choice between being faithful marines or good people that are aware of right versus wrong.…