Platoon

I think that this quote has a very strong meaning overall. I also do think that this quote is a very true statement about not only Chris's thoughts, but other soldier's thoughts, and the war as a whole. I think that this quote was represented very well in the movie. The movie showed a lot of internal conflict inside the Platoon not only between soldiers and commanders but more so commanders with other commanders. The movie also really showed what can happen as a whole if there is conflict.

If we fight against ourselves more than we fight against the enemy we have a serious problem. This hurts the overall functionality of the group and it lowers the moral. It also opens a door for the enemy. It allowed them to get the upper hand. They were able to attack us and keep attacking us, and some of their battle strategies worked. They didn't work because they were thought out so well, they worked because a lot of our soldiers fought for themselves and not for the group.

At the end of the quote when he says "There are times since when I've felt like a child, born of these two fathers," I think that he means that the two commanders were like fathers as in they were the men who shaped who was and the man he became in battle. He is saying that those two men had a big affect on him in Vietnam. He felt like a child while he was there because both men had different perspectives on what she be done in war, and the only thing he could do was to listen and adapt to both styles.

I think this movie represent very well in detail what can happen if just one piece of the puzzle is messed up. The rest of the platoon seemed to enjoy one another's company and they got along well. One powerful man who wanted everything to be his way screwed everything up, and it ended up killing many hard-working men. I think that people like that should be evaluated and taken out of the army because as you can see how much it can affect the group overall. It can bring the group down, it can make them turn on one another, and it gives the enemy and advantage.

This movie also demonstrates in great detail how much war and the stressful situations can change a man and his thinking. Before most men are shipped overseas to go fight they have good critical decision making skills and they try to make the best possible decisions they can. Later on after being stationed there so long people start making decisions to save themselves, and some even start making radical decisions. It was shown very clearly in the movie how much war can change a man. When Barnes shot Elias in cold blood and left him there to die it was an example of making decisions you think are necessary to survive, and it shows how much the war can change you. In the end when Chris came shot Barnes who was trying to crawl away, that really showed how much war can change a man. I think that it was hard to shoot him like that, but I am glad he did. I think he made the right decision and he saved himself and many others from dying by getting rid of him. I think by getting rid Barnes the platoon would run a lot more smoothly and I think the men would have a lot better chance of surviving and winning the war.

JFK's Assassination

I think that for sure the country was changed in a distinct way after the assassination of JFK. The assassination of a president alone is a huge deal in itself, and the effects it has on other aspects of our country were also greatly affected. These aspects include the government as a whole, the peoples' trust in our country, our economy, and our countries security. I think that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was a big turning point for our country. Sure other times in the past of country some questionable things have happened, but nothing to scale of this. I wouldn't think that this act alone caused our country to lose it's innocence, i think that our countries innocence was lost long before this. In my opinion the government has always had a way of controlling things so they get the outcome that they want. The main thing that I think this assassination did was open the public's eyes to what is truly happening in our country. I think that psychologically it scared many people in our country. I think that it made people question how safe they were in our country. If the president of the United States can be gunned down that easy, so can anyone else. Sociologically I think it changed the people's perspective on our government. They didn't know who to vote for or what was going to happen. I think some were worried the economy would go down the drain and others were more concerned we were going to war.

Yes I think that 9/11 had nearly the same affect on people as did the JFK assassination. I think that more than anything the most similar way the two events are the same is that both events scared and shocked the American people. Nobody thought that something as awful as these two events could have occurred. I do think that the American people blames themselves for this accident. I believe that they think they should've been more aware and they feel like they should've done more. Of course in both cases there are conspiracies that the government was involved and the ordered the attacks. I find it very hard to believe that the government would do something that tragic and awful to its own people. In this case I myself don't believe the government had anything to do with 9/11. Although, even the thought that the government was was maybe involved is a very scary thought.

In my thought, the government play a major role in killing JFK. I don't think that members of our federal government actually pulled the trigger to kill JFK, but I think many members were behind the plot to kill him. I'm not positive that the government was involved, but with all the evidence and investigations that have been done, I have no doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the solo killer. In fact I don't even believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was the killer at all. I believe that JFK's car was driven into an ambush of gunfire from three different sides. This whole ordeal raises a lot of  questions in my mind. One thing that really bugs me is that a lot of the people that were taken for questioning from the scene were never questioned and there is no record of them actually being taken to the police station. Another thing that really raises suspicion to me is that many  of the witnesses that were at the scene or that were even part of the big cover-up mysteriously just died "unexpectedly." Also, the one trial that was brought publicly to court was lost, even though they had very strong evidence which supported their claim, and they had many witnesses that testified for credibility.

In my opinion JFK was assassinated for three main reasons. One reason is that many people thought that he was soft and many people thought that because of this he would bring our country down. The other main reason is that he didn't want to go to war, but many other government officials wanted to go to war and assert our dominance. I think that officials thought that if JFK was gone, they had word from the vice president and future president that he would go to war, so i think that is how and why the plan was created. The last reason is that I just think that many people were afraid of change. JFK was a strong supporter of change. He supported the movement for African Americans, he was changing the economy for the better, and he was trying to make the country better and more peaceful. Many people didn't like this and they opposed change. They wanted to stick to the basics of what America was created on.

I don't think that it is a coincidence at all that MLK and RFK were assassinated within a few years of JFK's assassination. MLK wanted more freedom for African American people and so did JFK. MLK was a big supporter of change too. I think that his views and beliefs were very scary to the government. I don't think RFK's assassination was not a coincidence one bit. He supported a lot of the same things that his brother did while he was in office. When RFK won the election many people were afraid he would try and do the same things his brother did. They didn't want the change he would oppose. When he won the election he was gunned down immediately to make sure that the Kennedy beliefs were not put into office.

Trump Protests

Protesters are going to play a large role in who gets elected president this year. Many believe this because in history it has happened before. During the Nixon presidency many anti-protesters actually helped and contributed to Nixon becoming president, and this could very well cause Donald Trump to become president this year.

There are many similarities between the Nixon election and this years presidential election. One thing that is the is that both Nixon and Trump are using the police force to their advantage. They are supporting them and getting them on their side to help. Another similarity is that both men believe that people have too soft of a feeling towards crime and racial subtext. In both situations these men are supporting divisions of security, and this has proven to work. Most people will support law enforcement because they are a form of protection for the people. This worked in Nixon's favor back when he ran for president, and protesters today could vary well make that happen for Trump during the upcoming election.

There are also some differences between the two campaigns. One major difference is that the Trump protests are very small scale as of right now compared to the Nixon protests back then. One more difference is that Trump is not only supporting police, but he is taking it one step further and saying that police are the most mistreated people in the country. The last difference is that while Nixon may have been slightly racist and believed that law enforcement was who he should support, Trump large scales this. Now Trump has offended  almost all the minorities with some racial comments, and all that he talks about is supporting the police and the law enforcement.

Asian Auschwitz

There is so many different things wrong about this story. The most bizarre thing that took me by surprise in this whole story was that the U.S. did nothing to the people at the camp once Japan surrendered. The scientists were all let go. Even the leader of unit 731, Shiro Ishii. They let them all go free because the U.S. wanted all of the chemical and biological warfare information the Japanese had. Even when concerns about the information were sent to president Truman they were just brushed aside and never heard of again. I cannot believe that our government would let this be a secret and let everyone go just to gain an upper hand in war techniques.

Some of the experiments that were done to the prisoners or "logs" could give you nightmares at night. They absolutely horrible. Sometimes the prisoners were actually used for medical testing to learn about anatomy and how the body works, but many of them were just harshly tortured. Sometimes guards would decapitate prisoners to see how sharp their swords were. Other times prisoners were given bacterial diseases, had water thrown on them and forced to sit naked in the cold until they were harshly frostbit, injected with horse urine into their kidneys, hung upside down until they suffocated, cut open dissected while they were alive, and some were even put into pressure chambers until their eyes popped out and their bodies practically exploded because of the pressure. 

Another thing that really caught my attention was the Japanese leader actually gave Shiro Ishii an award for the biological warfare techniques he was able to find. Although almost everything that was done at unit 731 was illegal, Ishii was still given an award for the terrible things he did.

Once the United States got all the information they needed from the Japanese war camp, the camp was destroyed. The camp was bombed and destroyed so that no information or evidence was left behind. One reason the U.S. did this was so that the Soviet Union could not retain any of this valuable information. The destroying of the camp also let all of the Japanese that worked in the unit off the hook. Since there was no evidence of the unit existing, they could deny it ever being created. To this day many Japanese still deny the camp and the horrible things that happened there, and Japan still has not apologized to China for all of the destruction and horrible events that occurred.

 

WW1 Blog Chance

America and all of the people that live in this great country need to prepare for war. War is right around the corner, and we must be ready and prepared. Nationalism is a devotion to ones culture or religion, or in this case a devotion to our country. So if you believe in America and support America with your whole heart, prepare for war, because we are on the brink of it. One demonstration that shows the war is very near is that alliances have already started forming. One alliance that has formed is called the triple alliance, which includes Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The other alliance that has formed is called the triple entente which at first included Russia and France. If we go to war we will join the triple entente alliance and help Russia and France against Germany and the others. The reason that we will join that alliance is not only because we hate Germany and their alliances and what they stand for, but also because of the ancestral ties to France and Great Britain.


One of the main reasons that the war started is because Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian radical named Gavrilo Principia. There were other smaller events that helped cause tension and pressure, but the killing of the Archduke was the turning point. After this Austria-Hungary and Serbia declared war on each other. Each country got their allies involved in the war. The Untied States needs to step into the war and help our allies out. If you are with me go to Uncle Sam and enlist today. We need to prepare and get ready for when we enter the war. That way when full out war occurs we wont be surprised or caught off guard, we will be prepared and we will have the upper hand in the fight.

Chance's Muckracker Blog

The article I read was about two men, James Mitchel and John Jessen, who teamed up with the CIA to make more effective torture programs and techniques to use against captured civilians. The article was written on October 16, 2015. It tells about how these two men, who devoted their lives to teaching American soldiers to resist using forceful and abusive interrogation tactics, changed and developed a program for the United States. President Bush gave the two men and the CIA the right to test their experiment because he said they were not violating any foreign laws and the CIA got legal cover for the experiments they wanted to run. The CIA's goal with the new interrogation tactics was to make enemy hostiles feel helpless and scared and it is supposed to force information out of them. Some of the tactics they used included beatings, hanging the prisoners above ground just so they could barely breathe, putting them in painful positions for days, starving them, playing psychological games with their heads, and using Chinese water torture. On the patients they tried these interrogation tactics on they accomplished their goal. They made them give up all the information they knew and they left them feeling helpless and lost. Today many of the patients have life long psychological damage. They feel lost and helpless. The torture still had lasting effects on the way that they have to live their lives. Now both Mitchell and Jessen are facing charges for cruel, inhumane treatment, nonconsensual human torture, war crimes, and for violating humans rights. Many of the patients they tested on are dead today. They completely broke their will to live and they sanity and so many of them committed suicide, were tortured to death, or died from other severe affects caused by the torturing techniques. Other victims who are still alive still suffer from lasting physical and mental affects and will continue to suffer the rest of their lives.


 http://muckrakerfarm.com/2015/10/out-of-the-darkness-how-two-psychologists-teamed-up-with-the-cia-to-devise-a-torture-program-and-experiment-on-human-beings/

Chance's Veterans Blog

     I believe that the murder charges during war need to be changed. If we interrogate our own men and women who are putting their life on the line for us, there is a problem. Our soldiers have enough to worry about by putting their lives on the line for our country, but then when they have to worry about all the things they could do wrong in combat, such as getting charged for murder, they cant focus because they are worried about all the wrong they could do. I don't blame them for this, because I would be the same way. These men and women are volunteering their money and lives for our country, and they should not be treated like terrorists. What really gets me is that in some cases, terrorists will be brought into a court room to testify against our own soldiers, and the judge will listen to them. That is wrong in so many ways. I think that our soldiers should not be investigated or looked at for criminal charges unless something really big or out of the ordinary occurs. Otherwise let them do their job, and take some stress of them by changing some of the murder charges.

     As citizens we need to stand up and speak for things we believe in. In we want something changed or if we want something different, we need to go out and change it. We get what we others want otherwise. If we think that our government needs to be run differently, we need to step up and have a voice. Like Ted said, now days people look for security and a feeling of comfort rather than speaking their mind. I think this is mainly because people in our country have gotten soft. Everyone is worried about getting made fun of for their beliefs and they are worried being different so they try to fit in. As a citizen in the United States we have the right to express our opinion and to be different. That is what is great in the United States, we are free. Our responsibility as a citizen is to support what you believe and try to make changes that benefit our country. Don't just sit back and be scared, that is what gets us into trouble. We need to have more courage and we need support what we believe in. Our duty is to make changes in this country to help make it the greatest it can be.