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Political thought of Niccolo Machievelli
Effects of communism in the united states
Political thought of Niccolo Machievelli
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America is reveled as one of the greatest contemporary nations in the world. Patriots have a strong notion that it is a source of good in an unjust world, and it’s aims are pure and just. Contrary to belief, America is corrupted by the lying and politics that regularly poisons its people and sovereign system. A key example is counter-subversion and the regular action of evils acted on part of the government to try and “protect” the “perfect” system set in place by our Founding Fathers. Theories described and created by Niccolò Machiavelli will help aid and describe what is considered to be corrupt. First off, counter-subversion is an action designed to detect and counteract the attempts and actions to undermine the power and authority of …show more content…
With this definition, we are supposed to believe that the importance of the topic is not to be politically debated, however it brings to question what can be considered a “national security.” If any circumstance could be designated a security on the national level, all of a sudden it seems to be that one could lie to prevent the revealing of classified information that could create the appearance of a corrupt nation. This idea also still has a political meaning even with the construction of it being based around the lack of political input. This is an attempt to “protect” the United States of America from communist thought and the nations associated with it. With threats like Soviet Russia and China; the two beings the main bodies of communist thought. This thought however, does not occupy a specific territory. The point is, there …show more content…
When potential spies were caught and removed from society, two different actions could occur but not often would happen in the same case. The first was the initial act of torture to acquire information. The Central Intelligence Agency, or commonly referred as the C.I.A., was marked as being the first to use torture methods. This plays a key role on the War on Terror. Suddenly, the CIA is making far more progress at obtaining information that could be used for counter subversion. The Secretary of Defense felt like their department was no longer effective and sought for the ability and legal reconstruction to allow the defense department to use “Enhanced Interrogation Methods” to achieve their end goals. Different strategies could be used, but this requires a defining of what torture truly is. Torture is generally conceived as a severe pain, whether physical or mental, inflicted on a body. This was later described to include the intent to inflict the pain by John Yoo and how one describes severe pain as the description of torture. The different ways of torturing a person include some methods developed by the Soviets, and include isolation from other people and sleep deprivation. The point here is torture is a type of corruption formed by the attempts of creating a counter subversive force. Using torture was considered poor morals and reflected
Who wouldn’t have agreed? Yes, torture is cruel but it is less cruel than the substitute in many positions. Killing Hitler wouldn’t have revived his millions of victims nor would it have ended war. But torture in this predicament is planned to bring no one back but to keep faultless people from being sent off. Of course mass murdering is far more barbaric than torture. The most influential argument against using torture as a penalty or to get an acknowledgment is that such practices ignore the rights of the particulars. Michael Levin’s “The Case for Torture” discusses both sides of being with and being against torture. This essay gets readers thinking a lot about the scenarios Levin mentioned that torture is justified. Though using pathos, he doesn’t achieve the argument as well as he should because of the absence of good judgment and reasoning. In addition to emotional appeal, the author tries to make you think twice about your take on
Until there is a credible way to determine whether or not torture is in fact effective, I pass judgment that the practice should be discontinued. The question as to if the torture policy is a human rights violation or if it holds crucial necessity, is not answered in the essay. Applebaum explores the reality that torture possesses negative implications on the inflictor. After presented with the compelling stance and evidence, Applebaum raises the interesting question as to why so much of society believes that torture is successful. I agree that the torture policy is wrong, a point emphasized by Applebaum, contrary to the popular attitude surrounding the topic.
‘The wink and the nod’ that was all somehow acceptable to your primary sponsor caused many a dictator to adopt these methods to take and maintain power. Only recently have internal CIA documents become available, allowing researchers to begin to look inside the CIA itself. Partial as these releases are, they supply valuable insight into the machinations of this secretive organization. These documents outline the beginning of the Terror; let's hope we are seeing the end of it.
“President Bush has stated that about a hundred detainees were held under the Central Intelligence Agency secret detention program, about a third of whom were questioned using “enhanced interrogation techniques. The CIA has a way of very publicly blowing their cover seeming to pop up wherever turmoil, and political problems arise. The CIA exists to prevent threats, its operations involve covert actions or spying through various means to gather critical intelligence data. The CIA dates back to 1947. The qualifications and skills are above average. The job of the CIA is to anticipate and quickly assess rapidly evolving international developments and their impact, both positive and negative, on US policy concerns. When researching the career of
In 1986, the Central Intelligence Agency began to notice its agencies contacts and operations within the Soviet Union began to spoil at an alarmingly rate. The Soviet KGB, a national security agency, was eliminating these Soviet “Double Agents” seemingly instantaneously after meeting with CIA agents. Initial brought about the thought of KGB interception of field communication. Security measures were put in place where select few knew of these field operations yet the KGB still continued to pursue its current mission of eliminating CIA contacts. Ideas of a mole within the Agency became more and more apparent.
Reviewing the experiments five years later, one secrecy-conscious CIA auditor wrote: “Precautions must be taken not only to protect operations from exposure to enemy forces but also to conceal these activities from the American public in general. The knowledge that the agency is engaging in unethical and illicit activities would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles.” Though many of the documents related to MKULTRA were destroyed by the CIA in 1972, some records relating to the program have made it into the public domain. And the work of historians, investigative reporters, and various congressional committees has resulted in the release of enough information to make MKULTRA one of the most disturbing instances of intelligence community abuse on record. As writer Mark Zepezauer puts it, “the surviving history is nasty enough.”
The character of the United States is illuminated by the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson wanted to build a government where people are free and where the government “derives its power from the consent of the governed and it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it” (Jefferson, 247). T...
there. Therefore, Torture is illegitimate. Torturing is however, is an illegal act only when the
Ross, Brian and Richard Esposito. “CIA's Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described.” 18 Nov. 2005. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
America is one word that brings the hope of freedom to many people around the world. Since the United States’ humble beginnings freedom has remained at the core of its ideologies and philosophies. People of all races, nations, and tongues have found refuge in America. The National Anthem proclaims, “…land of the free, and home of the brave” (Key, 1814). But has America been consistently a land of the free? Unfortunately freedom has not always reigned. There is a constant struggle to overcome fear and prejudice in order to provide a true land of freedom. In times of heightened tension, the masses of common people seek to find a scapegoat. Often, this scapegoat is a minority with ties to current negative events. As fear uncontrollably grows, it can cause people to allow and commit unspeakable atrocities.
The notion that fear will make a human leak information is not a novel idea. Torture has widely been used throughout the world by many groups of people. After World War II, The Geneva Convention prohibited any nation from partaking in torture. The emergence of terrorist activity on American soil brought up the question whether torture should be advocated or prohibited from a moral standpoint. The US changed the definition of torture in order to forcibly attain potentially important information from captives. Even though the new clause suggested that many of the methods the US used were now legal, other countries still had an issue in terms of honoring the Geneva Convention and basic human rights. Advocates for torture promise that countless innocent lives can be saved from the information obtained from a single torture victim. Opponents to the advocates suggest that torture often results in misleading information. Morally, torture is not justified as it degrades humans and often leaves victims scarred for life and possibly dead.
This founding principle has been manipulated today to justify the mafia-like foreign policy that America has practiced according to Blum’s text. American people cling to the ideas that are stated in its Declaration of Independence. This attachment to these core principles leads to the ideology of American exceptionalism. The idea that America is the quintessential example of democracy and freedom is directly influenced from documents like The Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence states “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” This same ideology is echoed by those who blindly encourage or support America 's foreign policy. America is seen as the “guard” of the security not only of America itself, but of American interests and most importantly, democracy. This
Torture is the process of inflicting pain upon other people in order to force them to say something against their own will. The word “torture” comes from the Latin word “torquere,” which means to twist. Torture can not only be psychologically but mentally painful. Before the Enlightenment, it was perfectly legal to torture individuals but nowadays, it is illegal to torture anyone under any circumstances. In this essay, I will demonstrate why torture should never acceptable, not matter the condition.
The techniques used by the CIA and military in the wake of 2001 involved stress positions, strikes, sensory and sleep deprivation. These Enhanced Interrogation Techniques have been compared to torture and torture lite. While strikes, stress positions, and deprivation leave no lasting marks, they were found to constitute "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" in an investigation conducted by John Helgerson the Inspector General for the CIA (Jehl 2005).
In a time period when the United States and other European countries are colonizing areas at each corner of the Earth, the American people must stand strong against these impeding world powers. While they were still a colonized area, the people of America were never taught to speak up against the wrongdoings performed by the imperialistic nations; Martí knows this is why many people went to Madrid, Paris, and other European nations to learn and become modernized. It is important, however, that the people not be ashamed of their identity; they must have strength in numbers and unite in the face of adversity. There is a “pressing need of our America is to show itself as it is, one in spirit and intent” (5). Without showing the world that the people of America have united, there is no way for this country to stand strong against other