The Hunt is Over

            Many Americans were overjoyed when they heard that American forces killed Osama Bin Laden. People stood outside the White House chanting “CIA! CIA! CIA!” Obama had two choices to decide from, send in a missile to the compound and risk not being able to recognize his body, or send in a seal team and risk their deaths if something went wrong. He did not want another Black Hawk Down incident. Obama decided to send in the seal team to prove that we actually killed Bin Laden. The death of Bin Laden was a forgone conclusion because the president said if the terrorist leader wanted to surrender “he better be naked and on the ground.” What to do with the terrorist’s leaders body after they had killed him was a unique foreign relations problem. If they left the body there it could be recovered and buried and then worshiped by his faithful followers, like a shrine and a source of inspiration. Instead the American president decided to dump his body in the ocean where it could not be easily recovered and where it could not be used as inspiration for his terrorist followers. Little pictures were taken of the body as well which brings skepticism but it also does not allow for terrorists to see their dead leader and to get angry and retaliate.  

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/books/review/the-finish-the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden-by-mark-bowden.html?_r=0

The Yugoslavian Mess

This is one of the most confusing wars that i have ever researched so i can only imagine how hard it was for the people of the time to understand. The foreign relations  on the issue must have been outstandingly hard to deal with and  extremely volatile. Warren Zimmerman the last diplomat for Yugoslavia  was interviewed and tried to describe the situation occurring over there. He describes that there was no chance that  a diplomatic agreement could be reached with either side of the war. He stated that the only way to stop the war was if NATO wanted to use military force to bomb them. The country of Yugoslavia was collapsing and disbanding in to smaller countries. These countries were drawing their own boarders creating culture clashes that ended up causing a major engagement. The confusing borders lead to countries fighting to free their people or countries ethnically cleansing their countries to get rid of the people who they hated the most and who were trying to get other countries to accept them. Serbs cleansed the Bosnians who were trying to become a free country to try and keep the land and their country bigger while getting rid of a problem.

Chicago Tribune Article

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-07-08/entertainment/9407080075_1_gilles-peress-bosnian-war-civil-war

 

My link contains the July 8, 1994 article in the Chicago Tribune which highlighted the Human Devastation that was happening in Bosnia. The terms the newspaper uses to describe the images “horrifying” and also describes what is going on as “barbarism”. The Chicago Tribune is a very popular newspaper so this would have opened many peoples eyes to the devastation occurring in Bosnia and these pictures which were very gruesome would help people realize just how serious this conflict was. Pictures of any type of serious conflict such as the Bosnian war where many people were being murdered including women and children really help the reader understand what it is like in the country and help to put the reader in these victims shoes. When all these Americans are seeing these pictures and reading these articles the public opinion of the conflict will change drastically. This is why newspapers are so important to American culture and help spread news of devastation so quickly and effectively even today with all the modern technology that is available. After reading this article I also had a better understanding of just how terrible things were in Bosnia during the crisis because of how detailed the writer was when describing the scenes.

The Defense of Bosnia

For our upcoming class I watched a documentary titled “The Defense of Bosnia”. This film showed the start of the war, the atrocities that occurred, and the dedication of the Bosnian people to expel a relentless force driven by hatred. During the collapse of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina had a strong aspiration to create a democratic state. The Serbian leadership attempted to claim the lands of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the process eliminate and ethnically cleanse the Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Muslims. This war could only be described and viewed as an absolute hell on Earth. The Forces of the Belligerents did everything in their power to destroy and crush the armies and peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Belligerent forces often targeted hospitals, schools, churches, mosques, and in general defenseless people. Constitution camps were created and entire cities were besieged. This war was won by the courage of the Bosnian men and woman who stood up even though every battle that they entered was considered suicidal. The lack of aid by the rest of the world was an absolute atrocity. The army of B and H was so dramatically under armed and outmatched that in every battle one of their primary goals was to not only win, but to not destroy all of their oppositions war materials. They did this because at the outbreak of the war they had little to know heavy military equipment and recovering said war materials. This war saw mass genocide of Muslims and the rest of the world sat back and let it occur for years.

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a1bQTDR9y8

Battle of Mogadishu, U.S. Raid in Somalia

As my primary source I chose to focus on the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. The article is from the New York Times and was published in 1993.

The background to the conflict was that civil war between different clans had destroyed the land in Somalia and ruined the Somali agriculture. This lead to a great food shortage. People were starving, and on top of this, food being sent as support from helping countries and NGO’s was being stolen. 

The article discusses the reasons as to why the U.S. army was unsuccessful in Somalia. I can see similarities with the arguments used in wars such as the Vietnam war. Claiming that it wasn’t actually the militaries fault and that the United States shouldn’t have fought under the UN are, according to the article not valid excuses. The operation was a U.S. operation and lead by U.S. military leaders. The U.S. troops were close to succeeding their goals of capturing or eliminating leaders on the opposing side. But, because of confusion, an unpredicted reaction to the raid, and one of the helicopters being shot down, U.S. troops were unsuccessful. 

This was seen as a great failure for the United States and I think that it came to play a big part in how involved the Unites States got in future conflicts. If you read towards the end of the article it brings up the impact on foreign policy. U.S. involvement in UN peacekeeping had been put “on hold” and the United States was not likely to get involved in Somalia in the near future. I believe that the outcome of U.S. involvement in Mogadishu changed the certainty and perception the United States previously had on itself as a strong power being able to fight for democracy anywhere. I think this is especially evident when looking at United States and UN involvement in conflicts such as the civil war in Rwanda in 1994.

 

Two most important factors to ending the cold war

Strong leadership by Reagan and Gorbachev.

Reagan showed power through economic and military pressure and power. At the same time, Gorbachev didn’t think it was worth killing people to maintain control over other states. What made Gorbachev different from previous Soviet leaders was his approach to negotiations with the United States. Gorbachev was willing to talk and reach a solution with Reagan.

The planned economy in the Soviet Union made in collapse from the inside. Just like Kennan predicted in article X, a communist state was not going to be able to maintain its position as a world power.

We must love each other, or we must die!

When looking for a primary source to write about for this post I naturally started with the topic of Jimmy Carter, finding nothing suitably entertaining I moved onward to look for Reagan documents, a rather easy task considering what a visible president he was. The it struck me, that we passed right over one of the most fascinating pieces of American history, Lyndon B Johnson and in particular his commercial “Daisy Girl.” This add is perhaps one of the most powerful and moving political ads of all time, starting with a little girl counting the pedals on a flower, leading to a nuclear explosion with the bold claim that “These are the stakes!” While most consider this to be an attack ad I find this claim to be largely false, the commercial does not name anyone (Barry Goldwater) it simply states the importance of electing Lyndon B Johnson. Regardless of its level of being an attack ad one cannot deny that it is a shock ad. The images and emotions it evokes regarding the United States and the danger it is facing are undeniable. “We must love each other or we must die!” The epitome of strong word use, sending a strong message.

more sources, people

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/kansascity/obituary.aspx?n=joe-bill-mustion&pid=163662514

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/kansascity/obituary.aspx?n=ruth-brooks-hilton&pid=167060814&fhid=21274

http://www.gftpln.org/Article.do?orgId=987&articleId=4128

 

http://www.abpnews.com/archives/item/4152-longtime-missouri-baptist-leader-tom-nelson-dead-at-96#.UoA3kr_U7QE

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jhcraven.htm

 

Not only do the Swedes have a proud history of excellence in sports, but they are also developing new technologies to make certain sports even safer! Also, any country that has a soccer player on its national team who can score goals like this and this (and more) must be doing something right. Cheers to Sweden. 

 

Kennedy Bay of Pigs Issue

http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/bay-of-pigs-invasion-blows-up-in.html

Above is a political cartoon that shows JFK smoking a cigar that seems to be “blowing up in his face” you can also see the label of the cigar which reads “Cuba”. This cartoon was created to show that Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs invasion was a disastrous move that “blew up in his face”. This gives you the ideas that many Americans possessed when they heard what happened with the Bay of Pigs invasion, where the CIA backed Cuban rebels tried to invade their home country of Cuba and got destroyed by the Castro backed Cuban Army and Police. This was a very embarrassing event for the US and Kennedy because it made the US look weak compared to Cuba and that only strengthened Castro’s hold on the Cuban Government. Kennedy caught a lot of heat for this from the American public and this is still looked at today as a very embarrassing during the Kennedy administration. Castro gained a lot of support from this move and this helped him win over the Cuban people because it made him look strong and brave in the face of danger.