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Drone warfare
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In her 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow paints one of the most well-known manhunts conducted by the United States, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda. The film’s ending presents the death of bin Laden as a glorious moment in American history. After the U.S. Navy SEALs team enters bin Laden’s room, they quickly locate the target and precisely shoot him to death. “It’s okay,” whispers a member of the SEALs team to the women and children crying in the corner of the room, who are innocent bystanders of bin Laden’s evil scheme. As the team successfully accomplished the mission, the audience sees a team of national heroes that have not only skillfully killed America’s greatest enemy but also treated the innocent with care and respect. In this way, the film depicts targeted killing missions as safe, secure, and fast procedures that are built upon careful research and analysis. Although Bigelow’s film portrays the killing of bin Laden as a successful and smooth military operation, it glosses over the truth of the vast majority of targeted killing missions in the Middle East. In contrast to the picture painted in the film, the reality is quite heartbreaking – most targeted killing missions are conducted not by …show more content…
In this paper, I will examine how drone strikes are instituted in America’s foreign policy and their effectiveness against terrorist organizations. Although drone warfare might seem effective and thus desirable for many people, the civilian casualties that it causes increase anti-American sentiment in the region. This sentiment creates a backlash that in fact helps terrorist groups regain their leader, recruit new members, and facilitate revenge, making drones a counterproductive foreign policy
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States was incredibly eager to strike back at the nations thought to be responsible for this horrific tragedy. These attacks were quickly attributed to the terrorist group al-Qa’ida, led by Osama bin Laden, and to the Taliban-run government of Afghanistan, which had provided sanctuary to al-Qa’ida. In response, Washington approved a covert plan led by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to directly attack those responsible in their Middle East safe haven. Initiated on 26 September 2001 with the approval of the warlords of the Afghan Northern Alliance, with whom the CIA had formed an intelligence liaison relationship, Operation Jawbreaker resulted in the fall of the Taliban regime, the killing and capture of a significant amount of al-Qa’ida leadership, and elimination of a terrorist safe haven by early December 2001. Moreover, the Taliban’s collapse denied al-Qa’ida a pseudo-nation-state partner, serving to reduce the organization’s sanctuary to areas residing along the Pakistani border. Operation Jawbreaker, one of the first post-9/11 covert operations carried out by the United States in support of its national security interests, had proved successful. Word of the operation’s swift success astounded those back in Washington; dubbed the CIA’s “finest hour,” it signified the first of many victories by deposing the Taliban’s control of Northern Afghanistan.
September 11, 2001, Osama Bin Laden decided to “wake the sleeping giant.” The US immediately sent SOF units and CIA officers to recon the area and meet with the Northern Alliance. The primary battle leading up to this operation was Tora Bora, which was absent of conventional forces. Up until this point, the war on terror was predominantly a Special Operations fight along with Air Force for overhead support.3 SOF and the Northern Alliance had already displaced Taliban forces out of many towns and villages in northern Afghanistan to gain control of key terrain. Key towns in northern Afghanistan including Taloqan, Konduz, Herat, and Mazar-e Sharif took only three weeks to clear.4 The SOF units were making huge impacts across the country calling in air strikes. At the same time the SOF units were diligently...
This historical study will compare and contrast the depiction of the “War on Terror” in a pro-government and anti-government plot structures found in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) by Kathryn Bigelow and The Siege (1998) by Edward Zwick. The pro-government view of Zero Dark Thirty defines the use of CIA agents and military operatives to track down Osama Bin Laden in the 2000s. Bigelow appears to validate the use of torture and interrogation as a means in which to extract information in the hunt for Bin Laden. In contrast this depiction of terrorism, Zwick’s film The Siege exposes the damage that torture, kidnapping, and
Controversy has plagued America’s presence in the Middle East and America’s usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) contributes vastly to this controversy. Their usefulness and ability to keep allied troops out of harm’s reach is hardly disputed. However, their presence in countries that are not at war with America, such as Pakistan and Yemen, is something contested. People that see the implications of drone use are paying special attention to the civilian casualty count, world perspective, and the legality of drone operations in non-combative states. The use of drone technology in the countries of Yemen and Pakistan are having negative consequences. In a broad spectrum, unconsented drone strikes are illegal according to the laws of armed conflict, unethical, and are imposing a moral obligation upon those who use them. These issues are all of great importance and need to be addressed. Their legality is also something of great importance and begins with abiding to the Laws of Armed Conflict.
Host: On September the 11th 2001, the notorious terror organisation known as Al-Qaeda struck at the very heart of the United States. The death count was approximately 3,000; a nation was left in panic. To this day, counterterrorism experts and historians alike regard the event surrounding 9/11 as a turning point in US foreign relations. Outraged and fearful of radical terrorism from the middle-east, President Bush declared that in 2001 that it was a matter of freedoms; that “our very freedom has come under attack”. In his eyes, America was simply targeted because of its democratic and western values (CNN News, 2001). In the 14 years following this pivotal declaration, an aggressive, pre-emptive approach to terrorism replaced the traditional
Summary/Plot: The movie Zero Dark Thirty is a fictional account, loosely based on the finding and killing of Osama Bin Laden and his associates. The film details U.S. and foreign government interagency cooperation between organizations, such as the military, CIA, FBI, and Pakistan ISI, to track down and kill Osama Bin Laden. The story centers on certain CIA agents and the methods used to extract information from alleged terrorists so Bin Laden’s location could be determined. Set in the threatening regions of the Middle East, CIA operative Maya, whose only job at the CIA has been to find where Bin Laden is hiding, and Dan, who teaches Maya how the CIA operates in Pakistan, are assigned to work together in Pakistan’s U.S. Embassy. While in Pakistan, they interrogate and torture a prisoner thought to be connected to Osama Bin Laden. After a difficult interrogation, the prisoner finally tells the CIA about a messenger who works for Osama Bin Laden. The prisoner ends up giving the CIA the wrong name of the messenger, but they find out the real name by tapping the messenger’s mother’s phone. By tracing the call and following their suspect back to the compound by the Pakistan Military Academy, SEAL Team 6 were able to find and eventually kill Osama Bin Laden. In the end, Maya confirms the body to be Osama Bin Laden.
Events that capture the entire world’s attention are few and far between. Fighting wars normally occurs between acknowledged enemies. In the war against terrorism, most notably, the war against Al-Qaeda, the enemy is unknown. One is not the enemy of the United States of America by virtue of one’s ethnic heritage. A Muslim is not a hidden enemy simply because he is Muslim. A Muslim does however become the enemy when he targets the world as a member of Al-Qaeda, the vision of one man. He was an intelligent and educated man who came from wealth and high esteem, who, guided by his faith, through radicalization, exile from homeland, and anti-western sentiments, built the terrorist organization known as Al- Qaeda. His name was Osama bin Laden.
The end of World War I, according to some European historians, occurred on May 8, 1945 or V-E Day. A day marking the change of the world’s enemy from Nazi Germany to Communist Russia. Fears of Communism, the totalitarian government of Soviet Russia, were invited through the use of propaganda in the media by the United States government. Illustrating this type of propaganda is the motion picture, The Red Menace released in 1949 by Republic Motion Pictures provides acumens of the fears and concerns on the minds of Americans during a period in America’s history known today as the Cold War.
The September 11th attacks did leave a mark on the United States. The world watched the media account of the tragic events as they were captured by digital and print media. The author in this article explores different aspects of the tragedy to analyze the both Australian and American thoughts and understanding of the events. She has broken it down into categories: the aftermath of the attacks, interpretations of the attacks, and challenges that impeded existing structures of representation. Questions of how the attack was viewed, and how the terrorist evoked terror and mass terrorism are reviewed. In essence Western civilization was forever changed after September 11th 2001. The events of September 11 did leave something other than destruction and loss of lives. More than structures were demolished, a nation was forever changed. The attacks were so blind siding that, according to McMillian (2004) “…no retaliatory acts action was commenced during this 72-hour period against the suspected terrorist or the group to which they were linked, namely Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan” (p. 2). How can this be explained? Did the United States really knowingly harbor terrorist, or was the United States blind-sided. Either way it is not an easy pill to swallow. According to the reports the pilots were trained in America. A war was created against terrorism, the target Afghanistan. Starting in early January 2000, the “planes operation” formation would begin in California. Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mildhar would arrive arrived in Los Angeles under the order of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM). He was the organizer of the “planes operation”, and he instructed those under him what to and not to do to draw any unnecessary attentio...
Understanding the race and ethnicity issues in a multicultural society is vitally important nowadays as the society is undergoing changes. Some people believe that science fiction has no correlation with modern plights of the society. However, the scholarly research refutes these beliefs. In this essay I will explore the cinematic representation of racial injustice and xenophobia in the modern science fiction film “District 9” to demonstrate that Neil Blomkamf, the film director, investigates racial relations on the example of aliens and humans to reflect such social maladies as racism and apartheid, which until now have not yet been rooted out. I will refer to three scholarly sources on cinematic representation of racial injustice in “District 9” film. These articles assess a depiction of racial relations and racial injustice in science fiction films. The works include Professor Adilufu Nama’s book “Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film," Julian Schurhorz’s article “Mockumenting South Africa? Race and segregation in District 9” and Julia’s Kristeva’ research “Forgiving the Sci-Fi Alien: District 9 as a Postcolonial Apologia”.
District 9 is a film that takes us into a realm of a different world from the one that we know now. It combines extraterrestrial life with immense science fiction to illustrate a story we could only imagine to ever actually occur. Although it was created for entertainment purposes, the motion picture can be compared to many different types of individuals and situations. District 9 displays many underlying concepts throughout the movie about racism, prejudice and discrimination. While studying and analyzing the plot and characters, these concepts became more translucent to me, the viewer. This paper will discuss the treatment of District 9 residents and equate their treatment to people with disabilities.
Full Metal Jacket is written and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The film was released in 1987 and it is starring Matthew Modine (Joker), Vincent D’Onofrio (Pyle), Adam Baldwin (Animal), and R. Lee Ermey ( Guy.Segr. Hartman).
The amount of corruption within the United States’ violent involvement in the Middle East is almost unreal. Unfortunately, the wars have been too real—half a million deaths in the first year of Iraqi Freedom alone (Rogers). These wars have been labeled--the violence, filtered-- to fit a specific agenda. Whether the deaths are deemed an acceptable loss in the name of national security, or as a devastating injustice, the reality doesn’t change. Lives have been lost. Lives that will never be brought back. The intention of wars is in part due to attacks on the twins towers on September 11th 2001. When the buildings fell, almost three thousand people died, according
One of the latest and most controversial topics that has risen over the past five to ten years is whether or not drones should be used as a means of war, surveillance, and delivery systems. Common misconceptions usually lead to people’s opposition to the use of drones; which is the reason it is important for people to know the facts about how and why they are used. Wartime capabilities will provide for less casualties and more effective strikes. New delivery and surveillance systems in Africa, the United Air Emirates and the United States will cut costs and increase efficiency across the board. Rules and regulations on drones may be difficult to enforce, but will not be impossible to achieve. The use of drones as weapons of war and delivery and surveillance systems should not be dismissed because many people do not realize the real capabilities of drones and how they can be used to better the world through efficient air strikes, faster delivery times, and useful surveillance.
“The Hours” directed by Stephen Daldry intertwines three women of distinct time periods as one. Virginia Wolf of the 1920’s, Laura Brown from the 1950’s and Clarissa Vaughn of modern time. The movie alternates with rough regularity between these three main characters. The movie centers on the feminist perspective of the three main characters and their respective time periods in American society. Daldry achieves purpose through plot, symbolism, and motif in a way that draws the viewer in on prominent attitudes and perspectives of each character that reveal theme. Virginia Wolf writes her story, Laura Brown reflects on the events in the story, Clarrisa Vaughn lives the story in modern time. Daldry cleverly organized the movie into three distinct