Nisour Square Shooting
For years Blackwater have been operating above the law, but Nisour Square Shooting was the last straw. On Sept. 16, 2007 a Blackwater convoy opened fired on a crowd of unarmed citizens killing 14 and wounding 18. “In Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki promised that Blackwater guards would be held accountable for what he called "a big crime" in the weekend violence. Iraqi officials have threatened to expel Blackwater from Iraq over the incident, in which at least nine Iraqis were killed.” (Fainaru, 2007) Operating directly for the State Department made Blackwater next to untouchable. Will this treatment continue to occur after killing 14 people unprovoked?
The Iraqi shooting by Blackwater guards was not only extremely unethical. This decision impacted public impressions of all private security companies operating overseas. The Blackwater guards felt untouchable because they had the backing of the State Department, which included almost no rules. “Many U.S. and Iraqi officials and industry representatives said they came to see Blackwater as untouchable, ...
Bigelow 's film defines the pro-government style of Bush/Cheney era policies on the War on terror, which promote Dan’s torture of terrorist suspects as being effective in finding Bin Laden. Beatings, sexual humiliation, and other forms of torture define the militaristic style of information extraction, which Zero Dark Thirty promotes as being effective and ethical in the political culture of the 2000s and into the 2010s. In contrast to this pro-government view, Zwick presents a film as a cautionary tale about martial law and the increased militarism techniques of torture, which were deemed unacceptable in the late 1990s. This anti-government point of view illustrates the arrest of General Devereaux as a war criminal arrested by Agent Hubbard. However, both of these films project the War on Terrorism in American policy as being overtly militaristic in large-scale military operations and procedures to catch individuals in small terrorist cells. These are the similar and differing aspects of the pro-government and anti-government depictions of the War on Terror that have been examined in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) by Kathryn Bigelow and The Siege (1998) by Edward
A. The “We Beat and Killed People.” Newsweek. 13 May 2002 - 24. Print.
In 1970 the nation was in its highest state of controversy. The generation gap that had begun to form in the sixties was now more of a ravine. The youth of America was finally standing up and raising their voices in protest against all the problems that plagued the country they would have control of in years to come. There were many events that helped in feeding the flame in the hearts of Americans. One such event was the Kent State University incident. It is an event that touched the nation and made such a profound mark, and yet it only lasted for thirteen seconds. In the thirteen seconds the Ohio National Guard, along with the rest of government by association, established themselves as the new enemy. All eyes were on them, scrutinizing their every move, pointing out every mistake they made. Interestingly enough, most don’t even really know exactly what went on in those thirteen seconds, but they knew that it left four students dead and nine injured at the hand of the National Guard, so that was enough to strike the hearts on millions. Still today, twenty-nine years later, we still don’t really know what went on. Who fired the first shot, and were they provoked? Was it necessary for the National Guard to be present on this typically calm college campus in the first place? And why did it have to end in such tragedy? There are so many questions, and so many misconceptions about this incident, and like any controversial issue, there are always two sides to the story.
3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division must face reality. “The kill company” scandal has seriously damaged the image of the US Army, which in turn has challenged the trust the Nation places in its armed forces. More concretely, these events highlighted the need for strengthening the Rakkasans’ ethics standards. Soldiers are not warriors; they are ethical warriors, whose identity relies on two inseparable pillars: ethics principles and operational efficiency. The Army core values reflect this ethical identity and the duties that come with it. Understanding that warriors need solid ethical references, the Brigade will demonstrate commitment to the Army values, invest in ethics education, and engage leadership.
When a giant explosion ripped through Alfred P. Murrah federal building April 19,1995, killing 168 and wounding hundreds, the United States of America jumped to a conclusion we would all learn to regret. The initial response to the devastation was all focused of middle-eastern terrorists. “The West is under attack,”(Posner 89), reported the USA Today. Every news and television station had the latest expert on the middle east telling the nation that we were victims of jihad, holy war. It only took a few quick days to realize that we were wrong and the problem, the terrorist, was strictly domestic. But it was too late. The damage had been done. Because America jumped to conclusions then, America was later blind to see the impending attack of 9/11. The responsibility, however, is not to be placed on the America people. The public couldn’t stand to hear any talk of terrorism, so in turn the White House irresponsibly took a similar attitude. They concentrated on high public opinion and issues that were relevant to Americans everyday. The government didn’t want to deal with another public blunder like the one in Oklahoma City. A former FBI analyst recalls, “when I went to headquarters (Washington, D.C.) later that year no one was interested in hearing anything about Arab money connections unless it had something to do with funding domestic groups. We stumbled so badly on pinpointing the Middle East right off the bat on the Murrah bombing. No one wanted to get caught like that again,”(Posner 90). The result saw changes in the counter terrorism efforts; under funding, under manning, poor cooperation between agencies, half-hearted and incompetent agency official appointees and the list goes on. All of these decisions, made at the hands of the faint-hearted, opened the doors wide open, and practically begged for a terrorist attack. So who’s fault is it? The public’s for being
Ex-president George W. Bush asserts, “Abu Zubaydah also provided information that helped stop a terrorist attack being planned for inside the United States -- an attack about which we had no previous information.” Abu Zubaydah was a high-ranking Al Qaeda official who was water boarded (Luban, 1). Water boarding is a form torture that simulates drowning. Through this form of torture, the US was able to receive vital information that led to the prevention of a bomber decimating a bridge. Moreover, the CIA was able to extract this information and incarcerate the criminal. Though many lives were potentially saved, Bush was criticized for allowing the action of torture. He se...
Schmidt, Michael. “Fatal Bombs in Iraq Seemed Aimed at Militia.” The New York Times. 09 Feb. 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.
Do you remember the conflict that America had in the Persian Gulf a few years back? An incident occurred there where a man drove a truck loaded with explosives into the building where more than 100 Marines were stationed. He blew up the building, along with the Marines. The incident was published by the AP Press soon after. Now do you remember the bombing just four years ago, in Oklahoma City? Suspects Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols drove a Ryder Van loaded with 4,800 pounds of fertilizer and fuel oil to the front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where it subsequently exploded, killing 169 people and injuring some 500 others. Of course you do. While both were massive acts of violence involving American citizens, the impact of such acts is always felt the most when it happens right here at home.
I feel that this article should be read by anyone in uniform that has a public trust to uphold be it a Police Officer, who has to deal directly with the public opinion every day, or a Soldier who is in the public eye, and even someone holding a public office or federal employees that have to answer to the public. Anyone who is part of a group that has been affected by misconduct by part of the group or its leadership were the whole groups public trusts has been
The Bush Doctrine introduced after the 9/11 terrorist attacks addressed foreign policies that quickly became known as a doctrine focusing on terrorism. The positive side of this doctrine was the focus on combating global terrorism. It includes the ability to defend against terrorism and those countries which support groups to commit terrorist activities. Furthermore, it should be understood that a piece of the doctrine also attempted to instill democracy by making the world a safer place (Nacos, 2012). American’s were relying on the confidence and commitment of the government to prevent future attack and to maintain a safer nation. This part of the Bush doctrine is reassuring that the United States is focused on the safety and security of the American people, and as a nation the attention to fight terrorism was foremost.
Briscoe, Daren, The Green Beret Murders Haven’t Given Up. Newsweek, August 30, 2004. Vol. 144, Issue 9, p6, 4/5p, 1c. Retrieved from EBSCO database on the World Wide Web: http://web3.epnet.com/
Szegedy-Maszak, Marianne. "The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism." Writing and Reading for ACP Composition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Custom, 2009. 210-12. Print.
An active shooter incident is a form of workplace violence that has increased at an alarming rate. From the year 2000 through 2013 there have been a 6.4% increase in annual shooting in commercial environments from 2000 to 2007 and an 11% increase of active shooter incidents form the years of 2008 through 2013 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2014). There are many factors that contribute to active shooter incidents, including everyday home and work stresses, unemployment, substance addiction and major stresses (e.g. death of a loved one). It is now more important than ever that companies work together with employees when it comes to agreeing on proper preventative measures and procedures in the response to workplace violence.
Since the end of the Cold War, non-state actors have risen in both prevalence and apparent power. The presence of non-state entities has caused significant ethical and political problems with Western ideology. Coker discusses issues concerning non-state actors in “Ethics and War in the 21st Century” with special attention given to the conflicting cultural ideas regarding warfare concerning the USA. The ability to label a target as not only an enemy combatant, but a fundamentally opposed force that is willing to ignore common practices and ethics is one that Coker denounces and attempts to explain. The disparity of established ethics between the two groups is only complicated with emerging weapon technologies, most importantly non-lethal weapon systems. In recent decades, the concept of a diffused enemy has proven to be ethically more problematic regarding identification and actions against a combative force with considerations for emerging technologies.
The topic for discussion in this work is enshrined in U.S. Coast Guard mission challenges. The topic for research is “Enforcement Seams Caused by Differing Laws, Policies & Procedures in relation to Immigration” (U.S. Coast Guard Office of Law Enforcement. 2011, p. 6). According to Bush (2003), the security situation in the world is challenged by ever increasing global terrorism. Introduction of counterfeit products, the need for reinforcement of anti-dumping policies, drug and human trafficking remains a real threat in U.S. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection [CBP]. 2013). Sometimes, balancing between ethics and regional safety remains an elusive aspect (Bush, 2003). Ethical...