In our evolving world, we have noticed a change in what kind of material is now being reported in the media and recently, how that material is distributed. Although political bias is supposed to be close to nonexistent in what is being distributed by the media and by the government, the Western opinion of the Arab world and particularly the Arab Spring differs dramatically depending on the relationship it has with the country. For example, Dabashi demonstrates how President Obama often makes the comparison between Israeli children and his own children; but never with Palestinian children when talking about the conflict between Israel and Palestine. (Dabashi, 2012) It is the evolution of media and particularly how we receive our information that is allowing us to recognize the stark difference between how the West presents a situation and what is actually occurring. The creation of the 24-hour news cycle and the need to always be fresh has caused the shift in importance from what is being told, to how much is being sold. It is this Western Bias and the “old” media’s way of distributing the news that has triggered us to question what is being expressed in the media and our own knowledge of world events, opening the door for a new media to step in. In the western world, the Arab spring has become more then a group of people fighting to end oppressive regimes, it has become a political game between the super powers of the world. When chemical weapons were used in the Syrian uprising, President Obama and the United States were one of the first to support military intervention against the regime stating, “When you start seeing chemical weapons used on a large scale... that starts getting to some core national interests that the Unit... ... middle of paper ... ...ved from: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/28/opinion/ghitis-syria-intervention/ [Accessed: 06 Mar 2014]. Halton, D. (2001). International news in the north american media. International Journal, pp. 499--515. Hurd, I. (2013). Bomb syria, even if it is illegal. [online] August 27. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/opinion/bomb-syria-even-if-it-is-illegal.html?_r=0 [Accessed: 12 Mar 2014]. Levs, J. (2013). Syria 'red line' debate: are chemical weapons in syria worse than conventional attacks?. [online] August 30. Retrieved from: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/27/world/meast/syria-chemical-weapons-red-line/ [Accessed: 10 Mar 2014]. Pleitgen, F., Levs, J. & Carter, C. (2013). Obama: u.s. concludes syria carried out chemical weapons attacks. [online] August 28. Retrieved from: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/28/world/meast/syria-civil-war/ [Accessed: 7 Mar 2014].
Page, S., & Kelly, J. (2013, September 9). Uphill battle for Obama: Where Congress stands on Syria. Retrieved March 20, 2014
Since the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration has been calling every citizens and every nations to support his Middle East policy. Nonetheless, the U.S. has been involved in the middle-east struggle for more than half of the century, wars were waged and citizens were killed. Yet, political struggles and ideological conflicts are now worse than they were under Clinton’s presidency. As “President’s Address to the Nation” is a speech asking everybody to support the troops to keep fighting in Iraq, I, as an audience, am not persuaded at all because of his illogical fallacy in the arguments. In this essay, I will analyze how and what are the illogical fallacies he uses in the speech.
Terrorist attacks are a major crisis for a state, the attacks can’t only damage the state physically but they can also have an impact on the state’s economy. Nevertheless, state leaders must act accordingly and do their best to defend and protect their state. After experiencing the attack on the American embassies the President of the United States proposed a plan to have military intervention in both Iraq and Syria. The plan requires both Congressional and public approval along with the requirements brought by Just War Theory. As Crawford noted on “Just War Theory and the US Counterterror War,” no matter how bad war might be, it is necessary for there to be rules that can help prevent more harm. Thankfully, the proposed plan to go to war against ISIS can be justified on these moral grounds.
On 18 April 2013 American allies Britain and France provided letters to the United Nations claiming possession of evidence that chemical weapons have been utilized multiple times in the time ncluding in and around the cities of Aleppo, Homs and possibly Damascus.
Clark, D. K. (1959). Effectiveness of chemical weapons in WWI. Bethesda, Md.: Operations Research Office, Johns Hopkins University.
Shaheen, J. (1985). Media Coverage of the Middle East: Perception of Foreign Policy. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, v482, pp. 160-75.
The chemical sarin, is a deadly nerve agent that interferes with signaling within the nervous system (Geggel). This substance was used to kill 89 Syrians and injure 541 others (“Syria Chemical”). Syria is in a state of emergency due to the recent attacks from Russia and their own President Assad, and even more recent attacks from the United States, France, and Great Britain. Nikki Haley represents the United States as an ambassador in the United Nations. Due to the recent Russian bombings in Syria, the UN security council commenced and Mrs. Haley spoke about her concerns regarding what the states will do next. Nikki Haley took notice of the UN’s lack of justice when it came to the inhumane chemical weapons attack in Syria. Haley made a speech
Chemical warfare has been used in war for thousands of years as a means to lethally fight the battle. Just to give a few examples of the devastation, chlorine and phosgene gases were used during World War I and were dispensed from canisters causing around 90,000 deaths and over one million casualties during war (Mass, 2013). Apparatus for dispensing these weapons developed tremendously during the first half of the twentieth century, increasing these weapons’ alarming ability to kill. The United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War maintained massive stockpiles of chemical weapons enough to eliminate a large amount of the human race and animal life on Earth. In 1980, Iraq used chemical weapons on Iran during war and in 1988; Iraq used mustard gas and nerve agents on the Kurdish civilians in Northern Iraq. Pictures of the horrific attack on the Kurdish civilians were released and the world was stunned by the horrendous devastation.
Many people have no interest in current events in the world or even their own country, and are more concerned about matters that are more trivial, and even if they were to pay a deal of attention, common news sources are often biased and don’t release information that would hurt a certain cause. It is in this way that the citizens are kept igno...
In early 2003, the threat of Saddam Hussein and the possibility of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq captured the attention and concern of the world. One nation decided to illegally act on these unsubstantiated claims, invading the country, violating the UN Charter and breaking several international laws in the process. The penalizations that were subject to the invading country, the United States, were never carried out. The United State’s role and influence over the UN and the Security Council, along with the nature of the unenforceable, politics and power-based international laws, allowed them to escape sanctions after their invasion of Iraq. The United States did not have a legitimate reason for invading, and their ability to repudiate international law would be unacceptable for any other country. Their decision to invade Iraq was one based on money and politics, and the US should be subject to penalties just as any other nation would have to face after unnecessarily waging war on a nation.
Jouejati, Murhaf. “Syrian Motives for Its WMD Programs and What to Do about Them.” Middle
SUMMARY: The Syrian Civil War between the Syrian government, and the insurgents, as well as the Free Syrian Army has been escalating since early 2011. The United States, and our allies have faced difficulty in sending aid to Syria, and continue to deal with obstacles in sending even basic medications to Syrian civilians. However, the United States and its allies have also contributed to the lack of organization and the disparity in Syria by sending aid and artillery to individuals based only on political connection, and ignoring organization, local alliances, and without a true understanding of the reality of the Syrian localities to best protect the Syrian protestors. The question addressed in this memo will be defining the viable options to be pursued in Syria, how to pursue them, and assessing the most beneficial path of least resistance when offering aid, funds, and artillery to specific groups in the country. The recommendation will be that although the best alternative action item would be to choose a Syrian group with the least oppositional values comparative to the United States to fund, supply with arms, and train; that the United States should do nothing for the time being. Given the physical and financial risk involved with the Syrian Civil War, it would be prudent for the United States to simply observe how the war progresses over the next several months, as well as complete some research to truly understand the state of affairs in local areas of Syria to determine the extent to which the United States could identify a group to provide aid to, as well as the extent to which the United States involvement would be within Syria.
...lecting convincing evidence that Syria has used Sarin gas in Ghouta, Syria. Currently, diplomacy has prevailed; the Security Council has shown rare unity on Syria by passing Resolution 2118 requiring Syria to destroy its current stockpile of chemical weapons and prohibits Syria from using, developing, stockpiling, or transferring any chemical weapons. Syria by not agreeing to these terms will face penalties under Chapter Seven of the United Nations Charter. Syrian government has yet to defy the resolution and the OPCW has declared they have successfully destroyed the sites used for production of the chemical weapons it remains to be seen whether the 2014 deadline for destroying Syria’s current stockpile of ammunition will be met in light of the ongoing destabilizing conditions. Despite this amount of progress fighting between the regime and rebels has continued on.
Lawson, Fred H. "Syria." Politics & society in the contemporary Middle East. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010. 411 - 434. Print.
The impact of the war was soon to leave a mark in history. The use of chemical weapons adversel...