Chechnya

It would be awful to return to your home town and find all your old friends gone. victims of the war. I wouldn't know what to do! probably cry. It would feel so lonesome and quiet. So many familiar faces gone. never to be seen again. I'd ask myself "Why did this have to happen? why was there a war? did we really fight it for the right cause? did all these people die in vain?" I imagine that no one would be able to get over such a traumatic experience. Your life could never be the same again

War Child

Projects like War Child seem to help get the rest of the world more involved. Musicians have lots of power in our society today, they influence many people. I think more projects like that need to happen, to keep the world more aware and fighting for good. its a great thing when a few bands can get together, record a few songs and sell the album to make tons of money to help in humanitarian aid. It has been done a few times throughout history and seems to help everytime. I mean there isn't really a way for it to go wrong. playing music to encourage peace and help those in need out is a great way to use your talents for the good of the world.

Rwanda

its crazy that conflict in Rwanda has been going on for so long, yet no one really helps them. There may not be a lot that can be done but still, why aren't nations intervening? giving humanitarian aid to the country would be a great way to help. then you don't have to necessarily join the conflict. but you aren't sitting idly by just watching! Its really interesting/awful George Bush said he wouldn't help Rwanda, cause such a thing "isn't within our interest". I believe its in our interest just as fellow human beings! Or maybe we have all become monsters.

War and Retaliation

"the manhood that has been in war must be transferred to the cause of peace, before war can lose its charm and peace be venerable to men." I think thats a great quote. its harder to do things peacefully than to fight. war is glorified far too much, but if peace were glorified and it was desirable to be a warrior of peace, then we'd have far less wars.

I think Howard Zinn is more or less saying "who's the terrorists now?" some people hijack a plane and fly it into buildings killing tons of innocent people. so our government decided to go on bombing sprees in the middle east also killing tons of innocent people, probably more than were killed in 9/11. It was interesting how he was talking about how we never learn. with all the wars that this country has been through you think we'd learn not to keep getting into more. cause it just keeps leading from one war to the next.

Chechnya

I think the U.S. shouldn't get involved, but only from a war point of view. I certainly think we should be sending humanitarian aid to them. We should be trying to make a deal with Russia to leave them alone and help them rebuild. But we should not try and start another war with the Russians. If we went over there with troops and caused a problem, we would then be at war with Russia. That would do no one any good! The Chechens would still be attacked, thrown into the midst of the war, it would maybe even be worse than before. So we should try and resolve matters peacefully and help Chechnya in other ways.

Non-Violence

"But I believe non-violence is infinitely superior to violence, forgiveness is more manly than punishment." I find this to be so true! its harder to forgive someone than to get revenge. You have to try much harder to be peaceful instead of retaliating.
"In India it must be held a crime to spend money on a dinner and marriage parties... and other luxuries so long as millions of people are starving. We would not have a feast in a family if a member was about to die of starvation, if India is one family, we should have the same feeling as we would have in a private family." Its an interesting way to look at things. Gandhi makes a really good point though. How can you sit their eating your fancy dinners when there are people outside dying of starvation.
"The Afghans have a bad government but it is a self government. I envy them. And if we today had the power to drive out the English by superior brute force we would be counted their superiors"
The British didn't seem to take much heed to India, other than the fact that they controled them. Didn't try to help with the poverty. Truthfully they probably didn't really know what was going on or care much. If India had a self government, they could make decisions for themselves, decisions that would benefit the country and its people.

Peace and Disarmament

Sadly, I don't believe we will ever have world peace. the world is a big place, with lots of messed up people. Humans are too selfish and have a lust for power. Do believe it is possible to have war free zones. cause in a sense we already have some. Neutral countries, that don't fight in wars are places I would consider peace zones. I say good for those countries! I wish there were more of them. As for military disarmament...I doubt it will ever fully happen. There will always be countries unwilling to give up their weapons. Without weapons, you have no defense against invaders. And that wouldn't go over too well with the weapon manufacturers. Its too big of an industry, they would probably start wars themselves just to sell their products. However, there has been some disarmament in recent years, with the Russian and U.S. slowly decreasing their nuclear missile count. Thats a great step in the right direction, but its obvious neither country will ever completely get rid of their nuclear weapons, cause thats what gives them power. At this point we aren't certain what countries have nukes or not either. so unfortunately it would be stupid to get rid of all our nukes, cause then some loon could get power and take over by nuking everyone and we'd have no way to fight back.

love vs war and dictators

"I was delighted to have your sweet note with funny drawings made by you...Yes, it is little children like you who will stop all war. this means that you never quarrel with other boys and girls or among yourselves. You cannot stop big wars if you carry on little wars yourselves...May God bless you all. My kisses to you all if you will let me kiss you." I like this quote because it is accurate. how can we prevent wars in the future if we are fighting our own little wars! Its great how he is addressing the children telling them they are the future and basically you can decide how you want the future of your world to be.
"Human nature will find itself only when it fully realizes that to be human it has to cease to be beastly or brutal." Gandhi seems to be saying humans are truly peaceful, when they act like humans instead of trying to be war mongering beasts. we can rise up and do better than that!
"I will not go underground. I will not go into a shelter. I will come out in the open and let the pilot see I have not a trace of ill-will against him. the pilot will not see our faces from his great height, I know. but the longing in our hearts that he will not come to harm would reach up to him and his eyes would be opened. if those thousands who were done to death in Hiroshima, if they had dies with that prayerful action...their sacrifice would not have gone in vain."
It would sure take a brave man/woman to do such a thing like that. to come out in the open and have the faith that the pilot would hear your cry and not complete his job. but In truth that probably one of the only things you could do. hiding won't do any good. might as well give it a try!

Mans Search For Meaning

Victor Frankl seems like a very forgiving man. After being tortured and held captive for so long, its amazing how he still see's the good in the german soldiers. He insists that they are not all bad. Its really interesting how he talked of being set free and not being able to identify true beauty. How it felt like a dream coming upon a field of flowers since he has spent so long without such things. It would be super hard to try and even just stop thinking about all the terrible things that happened to you while in the camp, none the less trying to forgive the people who put you there!

I've Been to the Mountaintop

The war Martin Luther King is referring to is the war against racial injustice and inequality. He was fighting for the rights of black people, fighting for the right to be treated equally, fighting for the right of freedom. But he did it without weapons! when the white officers would come around throwing tear gas and arresting them, they did not fight back with the sword. they fought back with more protests and speeches. when he says "I've been to the mountaintop" I believe he means: I've seen whats going on in this nation, and I will not stoop down to their level and give up, or use violence. We are above that.

Child Soldiers

It seems like the Child soldiers that are in the camp are recovering pretty well. I'm sure its not entirely possible to recover from such awful experiences as the ones they've been through. But having a safe place to go where they can spend time with other child soldiers, having fun and just being children is a great thing. A good thing the U.S. could do is to build schools and give the children a chance to be educated. if they have the opportunity to learn, then they can go on to do better things with their lives. Its a good way to keep them out of trouble too. If you are sitting in school, you can't be going around robbing the neighbors. Another thing would be enforcing the rule that you can't have soldiers under the age of 15 in your army. maybe do some sort of fine. Say for every child soldier under the age of 15, we are going to fine you a certain amount of money. Although most countries probably wouldn't pay up, so that may not work.

Warfare is only and invention & the causes of war

i believe that War is an invention of mankind and that it is not biologically in our inherent nature. I think that we could possibly change and not have to fight anymore wars. However i don't think its likely, cause so many wars have been fought that its almost like a social norm so to speak.
Certainly the role of being a war hero has been highly glorified over the years. You are really important if you were a good soldier. So I doubt if we will ever stop fighting wars, but there is a chance everything could change.

I agree with Michael Howard. mankind wants revenge for actions others have done to them. so rather than trying to work it out, its much easier to just go and drop some bombs on them. Certainly some companies benefit alot when we go to war. During a war, there are different people pushing their agendas and lots of capital gain can come of it. You look back centuries ago and countries were fighting over land. why? because the land had something they wanted, something that would benefit their nation and maybe give them a big advantage against their enemies.

Africa

Angelou brings up that the Blues and Jazz were largely African inspired, as well as most forms of dance. "the ax forgets, the tree remembers" what a great proverb! its so true too. "we are the spring boughs with only the vaguest memory of winter's ruthless treatment of the tree." She talks of how a big part of african culture is art, specifically clothing and jewelry.

Rebuilding Afghanistan

It would be really hard to rebuild a government after all the corruption that the country has already been through. but if you got a leader dedicated enough, that wants to do the right things then I think it could be done over the course of a few years. I thought it was super lame how the teachers would show up then just leave again. the real question is why didn't they stay? I certainly don't know much about the situation, but it seems as if its getting better.

What Is Peace?

peace to me is the lack of war. it is harmony, getting along, being kind. It is happiness. everyone gets along or settles their problems by talking it out, rather than fighting. In general the world is a much better happy place to live when it is at peace. peacetime is creating friends rather than enemies. Peace is like the innocence of childhood.

in the hot zone

i think Sites did the right thing. such things need to be seen by the public to understand better what goes on in a war. the worst part of all the drama sites got out of airing his video has to be that he didn't want to air it. So now everyone is sendign him hate mail for something he didn't want to do. Of course if he wouldn't have shown it, other people would be mad and he could have been fired. I think its good that they showed the footage. Sites did have them show the edited version, which he certainly could have just used the original. So he was trying not to make the soldiers look bad, but he is there to document the war, in which case you can't just take anything you want out, or then its not truthfully what happened. So had i been in his place, I would have aired the video.

Kaboom

War sure doesn't sound fun to me! from this reading it seems like you just sit around doing nothing until its time to go fight someone. I think that basically what this story is saying is: War is what turns you into a man, seperates you from your previous life of partying, and goofing around. When you come back from war you are serious and more mature. you very seldomly hear news about the war nowadays. Unless it is about the number of troops that have died recently or politics related to the war. so its always interesting to get the point of view of those who are actually there doing the fighting, what life is like in Iraq, what is really going on in the war and their opinions on whether we should actually be there or not

"Defiance"

From the reading, Tuvia seems to be a pretty good guy. He has a love of knowledge, also he seems to be very calm and loving. I personally think he is a great man, helping the to rescue and house the jews. when he was a younger he was a no nonsense kind of guy, beating up his neighbor for trying to mess with their family crops. his marriage is a bit odd though. going to a match maker and being paired with a woman much older than him, i'm sure his family was wondering what he was thinking!

"How De Body?"

I don't believe that children should have to be involved in war, to see such terrible things and forced to commit such crimes. I can see why they are used though. As mentioned in the story, Children are obedient, have no real fear of death, and don't need much food. All of which make them good soldiers. I think its super cool that the church in Sierra Leone was trying to help the children recover from all their war experiences. If child soldiers are used in so many wars, there needs to be more programs like that, helping children to escape from the war and try to turn their lives back to what they were before.

"The Oath"

It would sure be a gruesome job, being a war doctor! In the segment of this book we read, I thought he talked too much about his childhood and we didn't learn much about the war. it would be interesting to read his book though, Because he is Chechen but also has Russian friends and schooling ties. I certainly don't want to be a doctor, but I can only imagine how awful it would be to be a war doctor. At the same time though you are saving peoples lives and fighting for your cause. plus someone's got to do it!

"Chechnya Diary"

I think that Golyz is literally just talking about the story of the war. I think its important because the world needs to know whats going on. I believe that its really important that people get the opportunity to learn about all the horrible crimes of war. In hopes that they will learn something from it. Golyz went through some pretty sketchy stuff to get the story too, like sneaking illegally into Chechnya, not knowing if he was going to make it or not. I found this reading super interesting, cause I am thinking about a possible career as a war photographer. so it was fascinating learning about how he was chasing the story, making aquaintances and also not getting killed!

"A Witness to Genocide"

this certainly was a graphic reading! To me it seems like being a journalist or photojournalist during a war would be a super hard job, having to see all the dead bodies and telling their stories. However, I also think it would be a good job in the sense that you are enlightening the world about whats going on. You are helping the people get their stories out, which in turn helps to get other nations involved in trying to stop the conflict. Its horrible what can happen during times of war, here is a quote from the story: "Nenad started running to the nearby riverbank, but the irregulars shot him dead on the spot. They dragged the corpse onto the bridge, then threw it into the green water of the Drina." and all that happened while his wife was watching! This was a hard reading for me. A year or so ago, I borrowed a photojournalism book from Eric, which had photos from this conflict. So as I was reading this, the images of dismembered corpses piled in the streets came back into my mind (they have and probably always will be ingrained there forever).

Dispatches

The only way to document a war, is to be in the thick of it. It would be super scary and way intense, but I suppose someone has to do it. If it weren't for journalists and photographers during wars, the people at home would certainly not know much about what is really going on. I think that the horrible stories of war need to be told, so that hopefully we can learn from them and fix the mistakes. Then job of all good journalists is to tell a story and from the writing it seems like there would sure be a lot of stories to tell!

"If I Die in a Combat Zone"

I thinks its odd that O'Brien is anti war in the beggining, yet he still decides to go to Vietnam anyways. Once he is there, of course he wants peace and the war to end, but it seems like he is kind of enjoying himself at the same time. It would be hard though if your whole town was cheering you on to go to war and you didn't really want to. I wonder why he did decide to go. Personally I would have done anything I could to not go and fight in a war that I didn't believe had a "good" cause.

"Owl Creek Bridge"

I liked the story. I didn't see that ending coming, until the second to last paragraph where he is talking about making it home and seeing his wife. It felt like a scene from a dream, his wife comes to meet him on a beautiful day with the clothing blowing in the wind. At that point, I figured he must be dreaming, unconscious, or dead. I think the author chose to write the story this way because: it makes for a more interesting ending, catches you off guard. Or it could also be saying don't try to mess with people when you know the consequences. It could also certainly be something completely different. I personally like to add a twist to most of the fictional stories I write, so I can relate to this story in that sense.

"War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning"

I think a few of the reasons men to go war are: to show their patriotism, for revenge, and to protect their beliefs. Also there are alot of families that pressure their children into joining the army. A lot of the time for family honor. I thought the author of this piece did a good job showing both sides of whats going on. It was interesting to hear him talk about being addicted to war and the dehuminization of the enemy. Here is a very interesting quote: "The historian Will Durant calculated that there have only been twenty-nine years in all of human history during which a war was not underway somewhere." It is astonishing that we humans just can't seem to get along together, so we decide to start wars. It is also amazing that the we can't just sit back and say this is stupid lets figure out a better way to work things out.

"Youth in an Austrian Town"

This story felt almost like a long poem, because of how beautifully it was written. It was interesting how the author described the town before the war and as war comes along, everything begins to die off. the children are out digging graves, they can't go to school anymore. Their clothes have turned to rags. Most of the books i have read on World War Two, are from an adults point of view and mostly focus on some heroic thing they did. So it is a nice change to get to view things at home from a child's perspective. The children are happy, playing ,and laughing. But then the war brakes out. I can imagine most children had no idea what was going on just that something terrible was happening. here is a line from the story that I find to be quite haunting: "They are aloud to forget their Latin and learn to distinguish between the sounds of the engines in the sky." I can't even imagine how terrifying that would be! Sitting around wondering if you are still going to be alive in five minutes!

War Poetry

My favorite war poem was "I Beg You Brother: Do Not Die!". I find it to be a very interesting poem, saying why are you fighting in this war? It is not our parents parents wish for you to fight! If you die, who will carry on the family name, and what about your young bride? to me its saying, you have so much, why are you going to go waste your life away for some other mans beliefs? My favorite part of the poem is: "His imperial majesty- he himself- enters not the field of battle. So vast and deep is his sacred heart: He cannot wish for you to spill your own blood and another's. To die the death of beasts, to think such death is glory!" to me that seems like an eye opener, I mean who cares if you die a courageous honorable death, cause you are still dead.
the poems seem to have different views, some are patriotic and pro war, others are anti war. like in "The Soldier" its talking about dying but at least there will be a piece of rich earth where an englishman died. this poem is almost opposite the other. I quite liked all the poems and they were certainly well written, but "I Beg You Brother: Do Not Die!" was by far my favorite.

What Is War?

Wars are essentially caused by at least two groups with conflicting ideas. such as: Religious views, political ideas, racial differences, to gain resources, and many other things. Both sides think that they are right and the other is wrong, so they decide to try and force the other side to do the "right" thing. It seems that wars have existed since nearly the beginning of mankind. For some reason we just can't seem to get along! I believe that lots of wars could have been prevented if both sides actually got together and talked about their problems and found a better solution than killing each other. Fear is a key factor in war, you scare the people into joining your cause, get them riled up against your opponent by telling them all the horrible things they are doing. I believe it is a horrible thing, however sometimes it is certainly necessary and I don't blame anyone that is fighting back to protect themselves. Unfortunately, I believe there will continue to be wars as long as the human race exists.