Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Blog #13 - Tie it all together

Since we're doing history backwards, I want you to think about tying up any loose ends that you might have hanging since we're just past the halfway point in the semester.

There are a couple of things I'd like you to think about as you write blog #13:


1. Pick at least two areas / time periods - economics, energy, terrorism, Cold War, foreign policy, etc. - that we have studied and explain how the recent past(last forty years) has influenced current events within the past ten years or so (for instance, how has the Vietnam War impacted the way American Presidents have planned for future military engagements like the first Gulf War, Somalia, and the Iraq War). Be specific with your two examples as you trace the development of a theme or an idea through time and show how it has developed over time;

2. Evaluate your two time periods and the themes involved and explain why you think these have improved, stagnated, or devolved. For instance, has America learned its lessons from Vietnam? Why or why not?

300 words minimum. Due Monday, May 4 (25 points).

Friday, April 24, 2009

Blog #12 - Pick one of the 2 questions -

Pick one of the following questions below:

All week we have been talking about comparisons between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. One of the issues has been about chemical weapons:

1. Agent Orange was used to destroy the foliage of Vietnam - 30% of the country - an area about the size of Massachusetts. Also, napalm was used to destroy and burn down the same jungles made almost 3 million Vietnamese refugees. AO caused cancer in American veterans and Vietnamese civilians as well as birth defects in their children.

- So my question for you (if you choose this one) is: is the use of chemical weapons ever appropriate? Does it depend on what kind and why they're used? Why?



2. The draft was used during the Civil War, WW1, WW2 and all the way through Vietnam. When enough volunteers weren't found, the government had to come through with a draft. Since the Iraq War began in 2003, a couple of Congressmen wrote a bill calling for an equitable draft that would eliminate many of the Vietnam-era inequalities (college, medical, deferments, Canada, National Guard, etc.) and included men and women.

- Question - Would you fight in the Iraq War if you were drafted? Why or why not? Are there any conditions under which you would / wouldn't fight if drafted? Explain .


200 words minimum. Due Tuesday, April 28, 2009.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Saturday, April 25 in Grand Rapids, The Rescue

Check it out - here's the video on how you can help Invisible Children get psyched for their project, the Rescue, that's happening on Saturday night, April 25.



The Rescue Instructional Video from Jason Russell on Vimeo.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Blog #11 - Should Charlie Wilson be considered a hero?

We watched some short videos about Charlie Wilson and learned a little bit his role in helping the Afghani muhajideen fight against the Soviet Red Army from 1980-89. Charlie brought taxpayer money together w/ Saudi money to buy (initially) Soviet weapons and then buy American shoulder-launched Stinger missiles to shoot down the Soviet helicopters.




By supplying the Afghani fighters w/ aid, Charlie, Gust Avrakatos, Milt Bearden and the CIA helped end the Soviet Army's occupation of Afghanistan (and quite possibly) and the Cold War by bankrupting the Soviet Union.





"Pakistan's then president, Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, who had allowed the weapons to move through his country on CIA-purchased mules, credited Wilson with the defeat of the Russians in Afghanistan. 'Charlie did it,' he said.

Thus, the largest covert operation in the CIA history ended with
Russia's humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan.

But in Charlie Wilson's War (2003 Grove/Atlantic), George Crile notes that the
U.S.-financed war against the Soviets in Afghanistan also helped create the
political vacuum that was filled by the Taliban and Islamic extremists, who
turned their deadly terrorism against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

After the Soviet withdrawal, the CIA tried to buy back the weapons they
had supplied, but were largely unsuccessful."





At the end of the 60 Minutes profile on Charlie Wilson, Morley Safer said that Charlie felt that the U.S. was making the same mistake again and again; we were "changing the course of history" and then not helping to fix the situation after the war was over. Charlie felt that if Afghanistan was not fixed after 10 years of occupation, it could "fall into civil war and then become a home to terrorism."



As for Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and 9/11/01, Charlie felt that a terrorist attack was inevitable: " 'We would have had something like 9/11 anyways. I think that bin Laden had his course pretty well set... But when you fight a war, you do what you think you need to do at the time. What seems right at the time is what you do,' Wilson says."

Question: Should little-known Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson be considered a hero of the Cold War? Why or why not? Give some specifics from the videos that we've seen or article links that I've provided.

150 words minimum. Due Friday, April 3.


CNN interview with Charlie Wilson, retired Congressman: http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/23/charlie.wilson/index.html