The Iraqi War

The war on Iraq was declared on March 20^th, 2003. The war has begun because of the 9/11 attack that happened on September 11^th, 2001. Ever since March, American troops were flown from the United States to catch the ones responsible for the deaths and injuries of thousands. After seven years, the only person that we were able to catch was Osama Bin Laden. There were many groups involved in the bombing, but the main one was Al-Qaeda, with Bin Laden in charge. Since then, we could not find anyone else involved. The question is if that we should leave our troops in Iraq for a longer period, or should we pull them out of there. If we stay, we will lose more troops and more money without accomplishing anything. If we pull our troops out, it will seem like we just sent troops for nothing. So which one seems more reasonable? Which one seems like a safer way? Which one would make it better for everyone around? We should pull out our troops from Iraq because it is horrible knowing that our soldiers have to sit in a foreign country, accomplishing almost nothing. We are losing a lot of men fast, and it is hard to replenish them. I mean, we cannot just get random guys from the street, give them a gun, and drop them off in the heat of battle in Iraq. They have to be trained, which takes money, fed, which takes money, sheltered, which takes money, and geared up, which takes money. Monthly, United States spends around 7.3 BILLION dollars on the War in Iraq. Multiplying that by eighty-four will give you the money we have spent in seven years, give or take three or four billion dollars. All those things are not for free, and we cannot afford anymore losses. If we pull our troops out right now, we might be able to save thousands of lives that would have been lost if we did not give up. So far, we have had more than 5,000 deaths and more than 30,000 wounded soldiers in Iraq. If we keep on fighting and sending in troops, there will be way more casualties then there already is. Even if we keep on sending in troops, we have to think of the casualties that are happening to the opposite side. Just last year, the estimated amount of civilian casualties is between 50,000 to 100,000. Some estimates even go beyond that, stating the numbers as high as 600,000. It is bad for both sides to keep on fighting. The 9/11 incident was nine years ago. Everyone understands that it was a complete disaster, but it is history. We should not fight over something that has happened nine years ago. It is bad for us because we waste all men that have families, friends, wives, children. We also kill men that have all that. We are shooting at people who might have been in a happy marriage for over fifteen years. They may not want to be in this fight, but they were ripped away from their families, given a gun, and made to shoot at the American troops. The war in Iraq might go on, but the losses we have suffered are way too great to forget about.

Word Count: 559

The Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw pact, or the Warsaw Treaty, was a treaty between Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, and Romania that signified the “Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance.” The Warsaw Treaty was signed on May 14^th, 1955, and it was signed because of the earlier alliance of Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States, which was called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed on April 4^th, 1949, six years before the Warsaw Treaty. The main purpose of constructing the NATO was because of the large Soviet population post World War II. Most of the countries that were in the Warsaw Pact had about fifty percent of their population being Soviet. When the United States noticed the fast spread of Communism throughout Europe, the NATO started to protect the remaining countries of Europe to stay, “Communist-free.” These two alliances that were formed were very close to being the alliances that the countries had before World War II. The Soviets started the Alliance because of either of two reasons: 1) USSR saw that the United States began alliances with countries, so they had to become allies with someone or else they could get attacked at anytime, or 2) USSR formed this Pact so they could be able to spread Communism more effectively since the six countries next to it were “Allies.” The first reason seems more real, because the Cold War was between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It was really amazing how these two nations formed these alliances couple years after the war. When World War II ended, pretty much all the countries in the world did not want another World War. They were scared of anything that involved a third World War. It is really surprising that people let the governments form these alliances because they have seen what chain reaction it caused in the years before. The cold war era was very pointless in many reasons. The alliances formed by both the Soviet Union and the United States were really just splitting the world in half. The eastern side was Communist while the western side was Anti-Communist. Before World War II -- and even before World War I -- alliances have been made between countries to jump into a fight when a certain country would get attacked. The axis powers were an alliance, the Triple Entente was an alliance, and many more were at very similar, if not the same, to the NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw pact was also applied to the military. After the pact was formed, one part of it said that the countries would put in an equal amount of soldiers to protect the western part of Poland from Germany and the NATO. The United States put soldiers on the eastern half of Germany to, “keep Germany down, and Russia away.” The way NATO interpreted it was that ALL countries were Russian on the eastern side, which was not true. The United States hated the Russians because they were communist, and that is also why the cold war actually began.

Word Count: 541

From a Millionaire to a Broker

Anti-Semitism arose in Germany in the early 1930’s, and continued until late 1940’s. Hitler has blamed the Treaty of Versailles, the Depression, and Germany’s loss in World War I on Jews in Germany. Starting in early 1940’s, Jews were being put in concentration camps so they could slowly pass way on their own. Young and healthy men were kept for work, while the old, the wimpy, and the ill, were taken off to the forests and shot. These horrors were inevitable because of Germany’s power over her citizens. It was in those darkest times of the human history where the real heroes and the real saviors are born. Oskar Schindler was just another German citizen born on April 28th, 1908. He lived just like any other German person would. He would go have a beer at a bar, he would talk to his friends at restaurants, he would follow rules just like others would. Schindler was a millionaire that only cared about his own well being. Even though Oskar was married, he has cheated on his wife multiple times with other ladies. What many people did not know was that Oskar Schindler was different. His noble acts stood out because he has saved over a thousand Jews from the concentration camps. But why risk his life? Oskar was rich. He was a millionaire at that time, yet he still insisted on helping the Jews get through this. As Oskar Schindler said in his own words: "I hated the brutality, the sadism, and the insanity of Nazism. I just couldn't stand by and see people destroyed. I did what I could, what I had to do, what my conscience told me I must do. That's all there is to it. Really, nothing more." People have asked Schindler why he did it. Why did he risk his life for so many people. He replied: "I knew the people who worked for me. When you know people, you have to behave towards them like human beings." He has stayed to save his children because he hated intolerance. He hated how the Nazis treated the Jewish people. Schindler would not just sit around and watch like others did when millions of Jews were executed through a shootout or gas chambers. He would take action. He would risk his life just to save his children, his Schindler-Jews. Close to the end of his life, Schindler had spent all his money to save his Jews. He went from a multimillionaire to a completely penniless man in the span of about four years just because he wanted to save as many as could be saved. His attitude changed throughout the course of the war. When he started, he only thought about himself, and nobody else. Later on, Schindler was changing, but the main reason why he let the Jews work at his factory was because it benefited HIM the most. He did not have to do any dirty work because the Jews would do it for a low payment. Later on, Schindler did notice that he was helping these people, and he continued until the end of the war.

Word Count: 532

Why Didn't Nonviolence Work Against the Nazis?

Where it all began was with a simple man named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi’s belief was that accepting non-violence would get rid of the hatred and animosity in the world. His belief is, and was, NOT passive. It’s important for us to be clear about this: There is nothing passive about Gandhian nonviolent action. After Mohanda has become the Indian Independence Movement leader, his belief was heard and passed on by countries all over the world. Many of them have accepted it, and have actually tried them out against their tyrants and ruthless dictators with shocking success. Some examples are: The Americans that lived in the early colonies stopped the British with nonviolence in many different situations. Some examples are the colonists against the Stamp Acts of 1765, the Townshend Acts of 1767, and the Coercive Acts of 1774). All these, and many more, helped nine colonies gain independence by the year 1775. Another good example is the German resistance of the Ruhr. The French and the Belgums wanted to take over and occupy the Ruhr, which belonged to Germany. Germany resited with non-violence, making it really hard for French and Belgums to get in. After a while it got so costly, the French and Belgums retreated. The Russian revolution that occured in 1917 also was nonviolent. most of the fights that went on were nonviolent, which lead to the fall of the czarist system. If the Jews at the concentration camps would have reacted earlier than right before they faced the gas chambers, or before they had actually gone into the carts that would take them to certain death, they would have accomplished what others have and maybe there would never be a Holocaust in the first place. What Jews should have done is right when Hitler gave commands about anti-semitism and hatred, they Jews should have reacted. When the government told the jews to give the German government the guns, they should have acted against it, and the moment Hitler ordered all the Jews to get registered and move to the ghettos the Jews should have started nonviolence against it. If people actually found out about the 500 jews that got killed because they would not follow what Hitler did, or that the Jews were killed by thousands just because they would not turn in their weapons when asked upon, even thought they were part of the army, or that German soldiers would just normally walk into the Jewish houses and kill more than twenty families just because they did not want to leave their house, BEFORE the end of the war, this would have uncovered the truth of the Nazi Germany. Many people did not even know about the holocaust until after the war. If people in Germany would have heard about the animosity that the Nazis showed towards the Jews, they would for sure try to do something that would help save that race. Gandhian philosophy is not used right before the certain death that the Jews had when standing in front of the gas chambers or the firing squad. The correct application of Gandhian philosophy is when the German government actually started hating Jews, when they started sorting the Jews in the ghettos, when the government took away their guns and sent them to concentration camps.

Word Count: 556