What Is Hugh's Role In Defending America

This action is one that could only come about in war. Due to the war people are more willing to act out of character and in some situations even forced to. This is best represented when Thucydides writes “Ill-considered boldness was counted as loyal manliness; prudent hesitation was held to be cowardice in disguise, and moderation merely the cloak of an unmanly nature” (3.82). The soldiers who are committing these atrocities are simply followers of a democratic regime. The leaders of this regime are in fact giving them the command to slaughter innocent people simply because they stand for an opposing cause. No leaders of good virtue, would command their followers to commit such acts, in modern society acts such as this would be considered war crimes.

Tim O' Brien, a fighter affected by the trauma Vietnam War held, divulge on his participations when his daughter asks herself if he has ever taken a man’s life. At nine years old, nearly 20 years after the Vietnam War is over, Kathleen asks her father a question. Has he ever killed someone, she wants to know. O’Brien decides to tell her that he has not killed a man. It felt like the “right thing to do”; he thinks when she is a little older she will understand better. Maybe then O’Brien will tell her about the slender young man who still consumes him, whom he still ponders about when reading the newspaper.

Richard Perry was a young seventeen-year-old black boy from Harlem. He did not have the money at go attend college so he decided to join the military. Perry played basketball throughout his life which resulted in a knee injury, but that did not stop him. On the way to Vietnam and at the beginning of his time there, Perry did not expect the events that were about to happen. “We spent another day lying around. It seemed to be what the war was about. Hours of boredom, seconds of terror.” (Myers 132). Perry and the rest of the men in Vietnam were put into hard positions and had to go through tough things. Perry had his friend, his leader, and was put into the hospital twice. Jenkins was the first to die among Perry’s friends. After the death he was hurt, but had to continue of and fight for his country. His lieutenant was the next of his close friends to die. Everyone was devastated about the loss of their lieutenant. The war had barely began, everyone had to still fight their hardest and not leave their guard down for anything. Many questions and prayers were spoken throughout the time in Vietnam. “I really wasn't pissed, because I knew the real

In the pursuit of safety, acceptance, and the public good, many atrocities have been committed in places such as Abu Ghraib and My Lai, where simple, generally harmless people became the wiling torturers and murderers of innocent people. Many claim to have just been following orders, which illustrates a disturbing trend in both the modern military and modern societies as a whole; when forced into an obedient mindset, many normal and everyday people can become tools of destruction and sorrow, uncaringly inflicting pain and death upon the innocent.

As seen from the eyes of an American soldier, Chris Kyle, a sniper in the Iraq War, “The streets were covered with splinters and various debris… Metal shields blocked most of the storefronts…” (Source A). Just like in most wars, many towns and cities targeted in the Iraq war were destroyed as an effort to break the will of the people or the economy in that area, in hopes of a US led , coalition victory. These destructive raids on cities not only crumple infrastructure, they kill innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the war. The innocent killing of civilians has increased since WWI, the first of the modern wars where civilians were majorly targeted. Since WWI, the ratio of civilian to soldier deaths has risen dramatically. The ratio during WWI was 1 civilian per 9 soldiers, since then, the ratio has flipped to an alarming 9 civilians

William Calley is a former U.S. Army officer who murdered 22 unarmed citizens. While he was speaking to the public he says, “when my troops were getting massacred and mauled by an enemy I couldn’t see, I couldn’t feel, I couldn’t touch…nobody in the military system described anything other than communist” (Simkin). The U.S. government and citizens made no effort to understand the feelings and thoughts of a soldier until Calley blurred out his and the other soldiers. Everyone should have been more considerate to know the army’s point of view of the situation and their actions before dwelling on the fact that the men killed citizens in the My Lai. Philip Caputo, a US marine, who also was accused of murdering innocent Vietnamese civilians wrote, “in a guerilla war, the line between legitimate and illegitimate killing is blurred. The policies of free-fire zones, in which a soldier is permitted to shoot at any human target, armed or unarmed, further confuse the fighting man’s moral senses” (“My Lai Massacre” History Learning). Since no one really checks in on the “rules and regulation” of what a soldier can do, they make assumptions whether the person is right or wrong based on how one feels instead of looking into what was

Matthew Lippman provides that the Lai Massacre violated the international humanitarian law of war. The Lai Massacre and the Vietnam War raises critical questions about how America conduct war and its military leadership in Vietnam. The massacre of innocent unarmed civilians illustrates the horrendous war crime committed by American soldiers. Lippman discusses how the United States tried to keep the events of My Lai Massacre from the public. The My Lai Massacre makes me wonder if this was only one of the many massacres in Vietnam War and if the higher US officials managed to cover-up the other massacres. The trials for the crimes committed in My Lai were held separately from the Nuremberg trails because officials wanted to avoid creating parallels between the two events. However, parallels can be drawn with American conduct in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Troops who were in violation of international law and committed war crimes in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay were not held accountable for their action to their full extent. In fact, those who were convicted were not necessarily charged with war crimes. This leads us to question whether the events of my Lai and Nuremberg could ever be reconciled. Allan Ryan makes the argument that the Nuremberg Tribunals was the most significant development of international human rights law. I agree with Ryan as many tribunals following the events of World War II have been modeled after the Nuremberg Tribunals. For instance, this is true in

This creates dangerous situations for both the civilians and the Marines. It is human nature to preserve one's own life even if it means killing another to accomplish this. There is no time to react in an ambush scenario, no time to decide who is Vietcong. This very situation is illustrated when Caputo and his platoon burn down a village suspected of housing a Vietcong ambush.

There are unwritten rules of war, and the United States may have broken one by attacking innocent civilians, but they were protecting their own. The United States has always been pro-active when it comes to the safety of its citizens and this was just

Richard Wilson is a man’s man, and embodies Hemingway’s fascination with living life on the edge. The “white hunter,” Wilson, lives the life according to Hemingway values. Hemingway believes in the importance of physical activities and outdoorsmanship. Wilson has an attractive ruggedness, and embodies many of Hemingway’s code hero traits. Hemingway uses an allusion to a famous Shakespeare line to strengthen the character of Wilson.

Over 16 elite special forces operators died because of one RPG and lack of resources. They didn’t have the equipment needed to land in the hostile mountains near the Korengal Valley, but they went anyways. They needed at least one apache helicopter to provide air support and clear the landing zone. With that apache helicopter those soldiers could have gotten their boots on the ground safely and assist their brothers who were under serious fire. This incident took over 16 sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands from their families. If they would have just had the bare minimum resources needed I guarantee you that most if not all of those soldiers would have returned home to see their families once more. Without sending more troops and equipment even more will die and suffer. We must act now! Before our enemy gets situated and organized and has enough time to strengthen themselves and plan an attack. We are American, we raised this country on manpower and gunpowder, now let's keep it that

In the first six months of 2014, a documented report of over 1,500 civilian deaths due to the crossfire from gun battles and roadside bombing, leading to the cause of many deaths (Ross, 2014). It was believed that even if the US forces is targeting the insurgents, the life of those civilians are still endangered and most of them die without realizing that they had became a victim of an airstrike. Drone strikes in Afghanistan have found out to be causing ten times more civilian casualties, than strikes by manned aircraft. We can see that an unmanned air strike can kill civilians without knowing if they are a rebel or an innocent resident. In Afghanistan, when a missile screamed down from the sky, two Taliban men were killed instantly and an innocent girl also died when a chunk of shrapnel flew at her left side, killing her before her family was able to took her to the nearest hospital (Cloud, 2013). The US military has acknowledged that there was a multiple times when they have accidentally killed civilians in a drone strikes, including in 2010 when 24 Afghans were killed in Uruzgan province after being mistaken for insurgents, which was later on determined that they were noncombatants (Cloud, 2013). The sad reality of life in Afghanistan is that, whether you’re an innocent inhabitant or a member of a terrorist group, when a drone strike hits a village and you’re inside

War has drastically changed since the time of the cold war, and now, more and more civilians are getting killed in wars. The European council in Brussels declared that since 1990, 90% of almost 4 million people killed in wars, were civilians. Now, Watson Institute states that as of March 2015, there has been around 210,000 civilian deaths just in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan alone. Not only are the civilians paying the price, but so are the families of those who pass away. No one deserves the pain that these innocent people go through, yet, attacking the citizens has become the standard way of war.

The war has brought him to life. He is the star and everyone dream to be like him. He’s just like us, but better: a professional fighter, an artist, a man driving a Chevrolet van; he even tried to be the chief of a great nation. He is a good-hearted gentleman, yet everyone still left him. He surely is worthy enough to lift a God’s hammer, but still invulnerable.He is Uncle Sam’s best friend. He is the best, the strongest, and the greatest leader.

Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.”