Wednesday, June 18, 2008

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A "Just War"? - The Second Iraq War - 2001 to Present
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Iraq.svg
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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Is the "Just War" Just as Seen from every side? - The Second Iraq War

http://geology.com/world/iraq-map.gif

Why Are We Interested in Looking at This Conflict

This war is a direct result from the 911 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, United States of America. After that attack, the US President at that time, George Walker Bush, vowed vengeance and swore he will launch a "Just War" to attack the 'EVIL" terrorists. As part of his "Just War", he launched two full scale military attacks on sovereign nations: Afghanistan and Iraq. Our point of academic interest here is the cause and effect of this "Just War". Is this war "Just" as seen by everyone else in the world? If not, what kind of challenge does this war create for our world?

Questions that You MUST Answer for Your Presentation
  1. What happened in this conflict? You may wish to consider the following:
    • Historical timeline
    • Profile of the main players/parties involved in this conflict
    • Impact on the country, neighbouring countries in the region, and the world.
    • Or anything else you find significant.
  2. What do you think are the KEY REASONS that led to this conflict becoming full-blown?
  3. But this conflict wasn't triggered by race alone. What other forces have contributed to the creation of this conflict or helped to worsen it?
  4. What are your group's reflections after completing your research?
  5. There are some similarities to problems or challenges faced by present-day Singapore. Please share with the class what these are. (DO NOT COMPARE WITH SINGAPORE’S RACE RIOTS)
  6. Bonus question: Mention solutions that have not yet been implemented by Singapore.
You may wish to start your research by getting to know this conflict using the sources below. However, you are encouraged to add your own sources as you do additional research on this topic.

A Wikipedia Summary

The Iraq War, also known as the Second Gulf War,[35] Operation Iraqi Freedom (US),[36] Operation TELIC (UK) [37] or the occupation of Iraq,[38] is an ongoing conflict which began on March 20, 2003 with the United States-led invasion of Iraq by a multinational coalition composed of U.S. and U.K. troops supported by smaller contingents from Australia, Poland, and other nations.[39]

The main rationale for the invasion offered by U.S. President George W. Bush and coalition supporters was the allegation that Iraq possessed and was actively developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in violation of a 1991 agreement.[40][41] U.S. officials argued that Iraq posed an imminent, urgent, and immediate threat to the United States, its people, allies, and interests.[42][43] The supporting intelligence was widely criticized,[44] and weapons inspectors found no evidence of WMD.[45] After the invasion, the Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its WMD programs in 1991 and had none at the time of the invasion, but that they intended to resume production if and when the Iraq sanctions were lifted.[46

Interestingly, while Bush and his allies railed against the terrorism that is allegedly created by radical Islam, the "Just War" philosophy is originally imported from another religion - ie. Christianity, specifically Catholicism. The main justification for going to war is seen as "punishing people who have done wrong" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_War).

Visions from the Past

A Youthtube Recap of the "Just War"

Cost of the Iraq War (Part 1)


http://pulitzercenter.org/showproject.cfm?id=36&gclid=CIidtcGslpICFQgmTAodZAhZ9A
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Income Divide and the Frustrated Poor - The L.A. Riots of 1992

http://www.cnn.com/FOOD/news/9812/09/food.from.hood/los.angeles.map.lg.jpg

Why Are We Interested in Looking at This Conflict

This is the riot that highlights to the rest of the world that the land of opportunity, the sole economic super-power, the United States of America has a long way to go before it can achieve racial harmony. In your analysis of this ethnic conflict, don't focus on assigning blame too quickly. Try and figure out why people acted the way they did. Understand where the anger came from and how political and economic frustrations of different groups of people can seemingly create a riot out of nowhere.

Questions that You MUST Answer for Your Presentation
  1. What happened in this conflict? You may wish to consider the following:
    • Historical timeline
    • Profile of the main players/parties involved in this conflict
    • Impact on the country, neighbouring countries in the region and the world.
    • Or anything else you find significant.
  2. What do you think are the KEY REASONS that led to this conflict becoming full-blown?
  3. But this conflict wasn't triggered by race alone. What other forces have contributed to the creation of this conflict or helped to worsen it? (Focus on the earlier wave of globalisation in the 1980s that brought Koreans to the United States)
  4. What are your group's reflections after completing your research?
  5. There are some similarities to problems or challenges faced by present-day Singapore. Please share with the class what these are. (DO NOT COMPARE WITH SINGAPORE’S RACE RIOTS; )
  6. Bonus question: Mention solutions that have not yet been implemented by Singapore.
You may wish to start your research by getting to know this conflict using the sources below. However, you are encouraged to add your own sources as you do additional research on this topic.

A Wikipedia Summary

Estimates of the number of lives lost during the unrest vary between 50 and 60, with as many as 2,000 people injured. Estimates of the material damage done vary between about $800 million and $1 billion. Approximately 3,600 fires were set, destroying 1,100 buildings, with fire calls coming once every minute at some points. About 10,000 people were arrested. Stores owned by Korean and other Asian immigrants were widely targeted, although stores owned by whites and blacks were also targeted. Despite the race riot image the event retains, much of the looting and violence was done by young men, both black and Hispanic, and much of the looting was opportunistic theft of luxury goods. Criminals used the chaos to their own benefit, and street gangs settled scores with each other and fought the police.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots

Visions from the Past

A Youtube video recap of the 1992 Los Angeles Race Riots that brought racial inequality of the United States to the world's attention.

Although the main trigger for this riot is the racist action of White LAPD officers against an African American, Rodney King, the ones who suffered most are the urban poor - the Korean Americans and the African Americans.

Here is the Korean perspective:


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Impact of Tough-armed Policing - A Re-look at Southern Thailand

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/roughimages/thai_map_sm.gif

Why Are We Interested in Looking at This Conflict

Thailand is known as the land of a thousand smiles and over 90% of its population are Buddhists. Buddhism is often characterised by its peaceful philosophy and yet the Thai insurgency is notorious for its violence. In this case study, we hope you will find evidence that it is not merely religion or race that caused ethnic unrest or violence but perhaps a mismanagement of people.

Questions that You MUST Answer for Your Presentation
  1. What happened in this conflict? You may wish to consider the following:
    • Historical timeline
    • Profile of the main players/parties involved in this conflict
    • Impact on the country, neighbouring countries in the region and the world.
    • Or anything else you find significant.
  2. What do you think are the KEY REASONS that led to this conflict becoming full-blown?
  3. But this conflict wasn't triggered by race alone. What other forces have contributed to the creation of this conflict or helped to worsen it?
  4. What are your group's reflections after completing your research?
  5. There are some similarities to problems or challenges faced by present-day Singapore. Please share with the class what these are. (DO NOT COMPARE WITH SINGAPORE’S RACE RIOTS; )
  6. Bonus question: Mention solutions that have not yet been implemented by Singapore.
You may wish to start your research by getting to know this conflict using the sources below. However, you are encouraged to add your own sources as you do additional research on this topic.

A Wikipedia Summary

The South Thailand insurgency is a separatist campaign which took place in the Pattani region, three southern provinces of Thailand, with violence increasingly spilling over into neighbouring provinces and threatening to extend up to the national capital in Bangkok. A long series of conflicts has resulted in over 2500 deaths in the past decade, with more than 2300 occurring since an escalation of violence in January of 2004.[1] In July of 2005 the Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, assumed wide-ranging emergency powers to deal with the insurgency. In September 2006, Army Commander Sonthi Boonyaratkalin was granted an extraordinary increase in executive powers to combat the unrest.[2] On 19 September, Sonthi and the Thai military seized power from Thaksin. Despite reconciliatory gestures from the junta, the insurgency has continued.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Thailand_insurgency

Visions from the Past

Pro-Buddhist Voice of America Documentary


Al Jazeera English Analysis of the Southern Thailand Insurgency Part 1


Al Jazeera English Analysis of the Southern Thailand Insurgency Part 2
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Economic Inequality in the Land of Egalite - The French Civil Unrest of 2005

http://home.comcast.net/~lkrakauer/france04/FranceMap03.gif & http://www.37signals.com/svn/images/wfran08big.gif

Why Are We Interested in Looking at This Conflict

France is the country that gave the world the concept of the Republic and democracy through the French Revolution. However, things are not well for democracy here. The race riots of 2005 highlight a lot of structural inequality where people of colour cannot get equal opportunities for education and employment. Being a Democracy is not enough to ensure having a society that's truly equal for all.

Questions that You MUST Answer for Your Presentation
  1. What happened in this conflict? You may wish to consider the following:
    • Historical timeline
    • Profile of the main players/parties involved in this conflict
    • Impact on the country, neighbouring countries in the region and the world.
    • Or anything else you find significant.
  2. What do you think are the KEY REASONS that led to this conflict becoming full-blown?
  3. But this conflict wasn't triggered by race alone. What other forces have contributed to the creation of this conflict or helped to worsen it?
  4. What are your group's reflections after completing your research?
  5. There are some similarities to problems or challenges faced by present-day Singapore. Please share with the class what these are. (DO NOT COMPARE WITH SINGAPORE’S RACE RIOTS; )
  6. Bonus question: Mention solutions that have not yet been implemented by Singapore.
You may wish to start your research by getting to know this conflict using the sources below. However, you are encouraged to add your own sources as you do additional research on this topic.

A Wikipedia Summary

The 2005 civil unrest in France of October and November was a series of riots and violent clashes, involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings at night starting on October 27, 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois. Events spread to poor housing projects (the cités HLM) in various parts of France. A state of emergency was declared on November 8, 2005. It was extended for three months on 16 November by the Parliament.[1][2][3] The biggest riots since the May 1968Clichy-sous-Bois, a working-class commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, who were chased by the police and tried to hide from the police in a power substation where they were electrocuted. unrest were triggered by the accidental death of two teenagers, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré, in the eastern suburbs of Paris, who were chased by the police and tried to hide from the police in a power substation where they were electrocuted.

Visions from the Past

A News Summary with a Good Social Anaylsis of the French Riots 2005

A video from a conservative French Caucasian POV -
(A Good Source for Analysing Hidden Racism Against the Muslim French)
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Pitfalls of Political Apathy - Nazi Germany as a Case Study

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/europe/02/euro_borders/img/map6.gif

Why Are We Interested in Looking at This Conflict

The Holocaust was a horrific example of how badly humans can treat each other. However, when one studies this event, the focus shouldn't simply be on Hitler but on why was he allowed to come into power in the first place. Here are some questions you should have when you are researching this topic: Where were majority voices who didn't believed that genocide was the thing to do? Where were the Allies like the British or the Americans when the Holocaust first started in the late 1930s? What were the characteristics of 1930s German political structure that made it almost impossible for any opposition to the Nazi Party to rise against it?

Questions that You MUST Answer for Your Presentation
  1. What happened in this conflict? You may wish to consider the following:
    • Historical timeline
    • Profile of the main players/parties involved in this conflict (You are to exclude Hitler from your presentation. Concentrate on all the other relevant parties that created WWII and the Holocaust)
    • Impact on the country, neighbouring countries in the region and the world.
    • Or anything else you find significant.
  2. What do you think are the KEY REASONS that led to this conflict becoming full-blown?
  3. But this conflict wasn't triggered by race alone. What other forces have contributed to the creation of this conflict or helped to worsen it?
  4. What are your group's reflections after completing your research?
  5. There are some similarities to problems or challenges faced by present-day Singapore. Please share with the class what these are. (DO NOT COMPARE WITH SINGAPORE’S RACE RIOTS; )
  6. Bonus question: Mention solutions that have not yet been implemented by Singapore.
You may wish to start your research by getting to know this conflict using the sources below. However, you are encouraged to add your own sources as you do additional research on this topic.

A Wikipedia Summary
The persecution and genocide were accomplished in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II. Other groups were persecuted and killed by the regime, including the Roma, Soviet POWs, disabled people, gay men, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Catholic Poles, and political prisoners. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings.[7] Jews and Roma were crammed into ghettos before being transported hundreds of miles by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were killed in gas chambers. Every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal nation."[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust

Visions from the Past

A video montage of Nazi Germany


A closer look at the National Socialist (Nazi) Party


Web Resources

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERnazi.htm
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/begins.htm
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005143
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The Price of International Indifference - Darfur, Sudan - Present

bp1.blogger.com/.../s400/darfur-map.jpg

Why Are We Interested in Looking at This Conflict

The Darfur Conflict is interesting and significant for a couple of reasons. The first is its similarity to the Rwandan Genocide that happened barely ten years ago. The world looked without doing anything while hundreds of thousands died then just as it is happening now. Second, the Darfur Conflict would not have happened if there was no fight for precious resources. In the Darfuri region, water is scarce and competition for it resulted in an open conflict. Two learning points we hope you will get: Don't expect help from outside when your society falls apart; and Competition for water (or natural resources) may start the next international conflict.

Questions that You MUST Answer for Your Presentation
  1. What happened in this conflict? You may wish to consider the following:
    • Historical timeline
    • Profile of the main players/parties involved in this conflict
    • Impact on the country, neighbouring countries in the region and the world.
    • Or anything else you find significant.
  2. What do you think are the KEY REASONS that led to this conflict becoming full-blown?
  3. But this conflict wasn't triggered by race alone. What other forces have contributed to the creation of this conflict or helped to worsen it? (Focus on the ineffectiveness of the United Nations and the role played by China and Russia)
  4. What are your group's reflections after completing your research?
  5. There are some similarities to problems or challenges faced by present-day Singapore. Please share with the class what these are. (DO NOT COMPARE WITH SINGAPORE’S RACE RIOTS; )
  6. Bonus question: Mention solutions that have not yet been implemented by Singapore.
You may wish to start your research by getting to know this conflict using the sources below. However, you are encouraged to add your own sources as you do additional research on this topic.

A Wikipedia Summary

 The Darfur conflict is a crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Unlike the Second Sudanese Civil War, which was fought between the primarily Muslim north and Christian and Animist south, the current lines of conflict are seen to be tribal, rather than more broadly ethnic.[1] The conflict began in February 2003. The combination of decades of drought, desertification, and overpopulation are among the causes of the Darfur conflict, because the Baggara nomads searching for water have to take their livestock further south, to land mainly occupied by non-Arab farming communities.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict

Visions from the Past

A documentary on the atrocities that humans commit on each other in Darfur


Refugees and Displaced Darfurians

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