Iraq persists...

I can barely remember life prior to American involvement in Iraq. And yet, the war continues to be the most prevalent news generator (and rightly so). The war has been taxing on our manpower and, for many, disturbing to our impression of the government.

Reading Dima's post, I found many of the same Iraq related opinions and issues that I have observed in the United States. It seems that the constant war images that invade our news and entertainment are numbing to many and scalding to others. The jury on our success in Iraq is still out, but I'm not sure that Bush will ever be considered the country's ultimate liberator. That task will fall within the next administration's realm. The "spectacle" of the toppling of Saddam's statue was certainly filled with media hype and was primarily symbolic. It will be the political and diplomatic moves that create great change.

Jeff Huber points to the unknown of our timeline for troop involvement in the country. The reality that we are only now working on setting up a hard schedule for pulling out our troops is disturbing. How long have we been in Iraq without a plan? I understand that we can't just harshly remove ourselves, but we need to at least have a plan to prevent what appears to be our present "blank check" situation.

Of course, troops are still needed. Violence persists as fighting amongst religious groups continues as explained by Healing Iraq both in photos and in posts. How can we pull out troops when such hideous acts as honor killings and their subsequent retaliations persist. Is this our cultural war to fight? Leaving such an act free to occur should eliminate the clean conscious of our government and provide reason for involvement focused on stability progress.

Virginia Tech...

The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech has caused immense sorrow across the United States and especially within the academic community. It's challenging to realize that we may not be as safe as we believe.

Several weeks ago, an alumni committed suicide on my campus (Rensselaer Polytech) by jumping down a stairwell. When officials arrived on the scene it looked like a gun-shot and they jumped to blockade campus and cancel all classes. SWAT teams cleared the building room by room. Afterwards, many people felt that these actions were too drastic for what we would later learn was a suicide. But after the events at Virginia Tech, all of us are wondering.... what if?

I was surprised by a comments on a post by Raees al Jumhuriyeh regarding foreign students. Coming from a community with a strong presence of foreign students, it's terrible to think of the lack of diversity. Keeping "foreigners" from being educated in the United States doesn't solve any problems and I'm glad subsequent comments demonstrate that.

Even further along those lines, Down on the Brown Side points out that yesterday was the 12th year anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombings by Timothy McVeigh. People didn't consider his race or religion in the same way that we appear to be making a big deal out of Cho's ethnicity.

Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi seems to claim that this event was a result of a deviation from God. I disagree with this as well. I think it's more important to recognize that Cho was deeply mentally disturbed. There are plenty of people with an enormous range of religious beliefs who find this event shocking and disturbing.

My sympathy and support goes out to all those that were affected by this tragedy...

Loved ones....

While it is obvious that the men and women of the armed forces are directly and inherently impacted by war, I think it is important to point out that there are many people at home who feel the affects of war in other ways.

The first blog that I found concerning this subject was Some Soldier's Mom . Here I started to see the challenge faced by families at home. Hearing of deaths within battalions can create both fear and great concern for loved ones shown both emotionally and physically (lose of sleep, etc.). It's also clear that families are able to share these emotions with each other and maybe (to some extent) share the unbearable burden through blogs and other forms of conventional communication.

I then found the Army Wife Toddler Mom blog which reveals that many of the wives, mothers, and others at home wouldn't have it any other way (see 4/10 post). Love is clearly not a thing to be reckoned with and it's important to consider that there is choice involved here. While the times may be hard, these individuals are ready and willing.

Finally, I found an article by Joanna Wroblewski which discusses the issues felt by those who experience the death of a loved soldier. The separation from what was once a military life clearly is not an easy process and the judgment felt by other people carries enormous pressure. The time taken for recovery probably lasts beyond a lifetime....

The issues here are somber and challenging. It becomes practically our responsibility to support our troops. Their lives have an impact on ours that may not be nearly as indirect as we had imagined.

Propaganda?

Recently, I've discussed and looked at significant propaganda in one of my classes. It's become clear through videos and discussion that propaganda is not only a widespread and influential power, but it also acts in essentially all sides of a conflict. I can't imagine that there is anyway to safely identify propaganda other than to continuously investigate the information we take in. The first part of any analysis needs to look for the subject's bias and identify the founding facts that make such an argument possible.

In exploring blogs online, I first stumbled across Hot Potato Mash and his criticism of Fox News. It's clear from the embedded videos that the Fox corporation was in support of the war effort (see the bottom video) and this sort of agenda in a media source is important to consider. As such a critical information outlet, Fox certainly has more control than it claims and shows that we need to consider all of our news sources equally.

Another video worth discussing here is the second in which a child identifies religion as the reason for wars. There are multiple issues here. First, the child is being used as propaganda tool against religion and probably has relatively minimal idea of the political reasoning (did you know the difference between Republican and Democrats at that age?). And yet, to control YouTube (as O'Reilly appears to be suggesting) is a violation of our freedom of speech. it seems that both sides are utilizing propaganda here. Additionally, the source is in question as some YouTube commenters explain that it was a joke.... not funny?

I searched the web for the most recent occurrence of propaganda and couldn't avoid the story of the 15 British soldiers that were released from Iran last week. The soldiers were given permission to sell their stories to the private sector and as such were deemed "propaganda pawn[s]" by Muslim Public Affairs Committee of the United Kingdom. Many view these stories as way to make Iran look violent in order to stir public opinion against the country. Particular attention is paid to Faye Turney, the only captured female; her gender is commonly pointed out in what seems to be hype.

The outcry from this privatization was overwhelming and it's worth noting that British soldiers we recently banned from telling their stories. But how much of a difference will this make? And will the restriction go away once the outcry dies down? Anyway you look at it, these 15 individuals were already given permission and will be telling their stories; the damage may already be done.

We can't avoid propaganda, but we can, and should, be critical of all the information we take in. It is our responsibility to determine the validity and spin of our news such that we can generate more informed opinions of world issues...

Afghanistan...

Over the past week or so, I’ve spent some significant time looking at blogs surrounding ongoing issues in Afghanistan. I drew a lot from my readings, but the primary thing that I’ve discovered seems to be a sense of confusion and instability for the redevelopment of the country.

The first thing that pushed me this way was a post by Sanjar in which he explained that potentially half of the aid in Afghanistan ends up in the wrong hands. He points to the police as a major source of the corruption. This seems like quite a challenge… do the police need corrupt funds to keep the people safe? Or is there an element of greed here preventing the lives of everyday people from improving? The later may make more sense as it is claimed that the police have sold vehicles that they're expect to use....

Other sources may confirm this as Carl Robichaud says that 60% of Afghans feel that the country is the most corrupt it has been in the past two decades. Only 45% of these people say that this corruption has had little effect on them. So how is this compounding corruption ended? The situation is certainly complicated…

Later, I read Frida’s post about issues within Afghanistan. She points out the severity of life there after the death of a six year old and the injuries of a four and a twelve year old when a group of US and Afghan soldiers were attacked. More and more scenes like this show that violence is still a pressing issue in Afghanistan. The numbers again confirm this to be true and depressing in terms of civilian casualties.

The most recent news comes from the capture of several journalists by terrorists. After Daniel Mastrogiacomo, an Italian reporter, was exchanged for several captured Taliban, many individuals protested the lack of release of Afghan journalist/interpreter Ajmal Naqshbandi. This act seems to have demonstrated some sense of nationalism or at least a need for the Afghan government to protect its people equally.

So what’s next for the Afghans? How will the country continue to grow and develop? From a bigger picture, it seems that more and more people need to be intellectually won over to stopping violence. This violence allows for much of the corruption that exists and ending it (absolutely much easier said than done) may be the key to the future for Afghanistan.

An Introduction....

Hello!

This blog is intended to be an outlet for my personal studies on the impact of war on young people in society. So first, who am I?

My name is Scott and I'm a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. I'm studying mechanical engineering but have also been involved in a variety of Science, Technology, and Society classes which have spurred my interest in the relationship between war and young people.

I hope to take get some global perspective from this blog and welcome you to join me in exploring the perspectives of myself and others!