Was The Iraq War Just Or Unjust?

In the second unit of the course Policy, we studied in depth the wars that the United States has been into. We had many discussions about different wars, when did the United States entered the war and why. We also learned the purpose of the execute and how it functions. For our action project, we had to find a war of our interest and that the United States participated in it. I chose the Iraq war because it was recent and when it was happening, I had no idea what was going on. Thats where my interest came from just knowing what was happening around me when I was a kid. During this action project I had difficulty finding a policy that was made in that time and how the citizens interpret it. I had lots of information, but it was difficult to place in information in the right place. I learned how to write an essay with lots of information from lots of websites.

Bush Doctrine. Wikipedia. March 23, 2016.

The war was fought in Iraq. The war takes place 2003-2011, the U.S was in the war since the beginning because they started the war. Countries involved in the war against Iraq are United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, Italy, Poland, Australia, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine, Estonia, Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, MNF-I, and Azerbaijan. Countries in Iraq are Baath Loyalist, Islamic State of Iraq, Mahdi Army, Special groups, IAI, and Ansar al-sunnah. Some tactics and strategies that the U.S. Army used was the Coalition forces were able to topple the dictator's regime and capture Iraq’s major cities in just three weeks, sustaining few casualties. “Despite fears that Iraqi forces would engage in a scorched-earth policy—destroying bridges and dams and setting fire to Iraq’s southern oil wells—little damage was done by retreating Iraqi forces; in fact, large numbers of Iraqi troops simply chose not to resist the advance of coalition forces” (Encyclopedia Britannica, page 1.) The causes of the war was The Dictatorship of Saddam Hussein that violated the peoples human rights. Also it was suspected that the dictator had a weapon of destruction or was making one to attack other places, such as the United States since the United State was certain that the dictator was involved in the 9/11 attack that happen in New York. Some underlying causes was the United Kingdom notice Iraq getting lots of weapons and technology. When that notice was made they requested the UN inspections to see if Iraq had a lot of weapons and Iraq didn’t comply. I think that the Iraq war was unjust because all of the President's Bush reasons were at the end proved wrong. All of his assumptions were just assumptions nothing that he claimed they had was true and yet many lives were lost both from America and Iraq citizens. Though several antiwar protests occurred in American cities in the lead-up to the invasion, many opinion polls showed considerable support for military action against Iraq before and during the war. American opinions on the war sometimes crossed traditional party lines and doctrinal affiliation, with many to the right of the avowedly conservative Bush seeing the war as an act of reckless internationalism and some to the political left—appalled by the Baʿthist regime’s brutal human rights violations and its consistent aggression—giving grudging support to military action.

Just after the United States Army stated the explosion on rock Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, U.S. President George W. Bush announced in a televised address, “At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger” (History, page 1.) President Bush declared war in Iraq on March 20, 2001. Congress supported President Bush because they didn’t want another attack, they knew that the terrorism of 9/11 were from around there and Iraq had a weapon of destruction. Congress agreed to help protect the people of the United States. President Bush and his advisors built much of their case for war on the idea that Iraq, under dictator Saddam Hussein, possessed or was in the process of building weapons of mass destruction.

The Bush administration's foreign policy will be remembered mainly for the Iraq war and the doctrine of pre-emption.The pre-emption policy that President Bush made for the Iraq war was to allow the United States to attack Iraq before Iraq attacks them. Although the United States reasons weren’t as valid to attack and kill many people who might have been innocent. Mr. Bush's doctrine of pre-emption, which calls for attacking a country or group deemed to be posing an imminent threat before it attacks the United States. He proposed this because he felt that after 9/11 attack, he needed to be ready for another attack and with the knowledge of weapons in Iraq he didn’t want to risk another attack. Before knowing for sure he decided to make this policy to attack potential terrorism before 
they do. The policy was intended to prepare the country to go to war for potential reasons of President Bush.

Although the war wasn’t in the United States, there was protest about the war in Iraq. People didn't agree to the declaration of war because they didn’t see how sending sons, daughter, brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers to war and putting their lives in danger was an honor. Not only people in Iraq will die or get injured, but also american citizens can have the same fate. Making the soldiers believe that they were fighting for something great, when actually there was no need for that blood shed and all the trauma the soldiers had to go through just for a policy that our government made. Government can declare war, make bills and laws, but most of the time they just make them because it doesn’t affect them. When declaring war they are safe at home far away from the war and they just have to deal with some updates about the war, the government don’t go through what the soldiers do. Soldiers fight, see things that they shouldn’t and do things that might be against their will, but the government doesn’t understand because they aren’t in the war they are just in the side lines. In Chicago about 5,000 protesters gathered at Union Park and marched to Federal Plaza. Three students were arrested for walking on the street and charged with disobeying a police officer, resisting arrest, and damaging to property. I think that the way the american citizens protested against the war and try to defend our soldiers and innocent lives in Iraq was just because they can see a solution without violence and risking lives. Consequences of this policy is Iraq was in January 2005, the Iraqi people elected a 275-
member Iraqi National Assembly. A new constitution for the country was ratified that October. On November 6, 2006, Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.

I think that the war was unjust because President declared war on Iraq when there wasn’t strong enough valid reason. There was the cause that the dictator in Iraq violated the people's rights, but the United States didn’t go to war to protect and fight for innocent people. The United States fought for an assumption that Iraq had destructive weapons and that they will attack the United States, but at the end after investigations there was no evidence found. President created the pre-emption where allows the United States to attack a group of people before they attack them, but there was no evidence that the group was going to attack even if they had the weapons people claimed they had. After the war american soldier were traumatized from the war and many lives were lost on both places. It was hard to restore law and order in Iraq because since the dictator was in power a long time and many people were on his side, people didn’t know who to trust, follow or who should be in charge.

Citations:
"Iraq War." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. Web. May 13, 2016.
“List of wars involving the United States.” Wikipedia. May 12, 2016. Web. May 12, 2016.
Nicholas Kralev. “Iraq war defines foreign policy.” The Washington Times. January 15, 2009. Web. May 13, 2016.
“Thousands Across U.S. Protest Iraq War.” CBSNews. October 27, 2007. Web. May 14, 2016.
“War in Iraq begins.” This Day In History. March 19, 2003. Web. May 12, 2016.

Back to The Future Review

In the first unit of the course Ollywood, we studied pre production. Ollywood is a film critique class. We are studying the elements necessary in order to create a great movie. The first unit studies the screenplay, costume design, set design, lighting, and location scouting. For our first action project, we critiqued a film that was considered to have great elements of pre-production. I chose to critique Back to The Future because I have seen it before. Throughout this project, I learned how to write an effective movie critique. I am proud of the research I did for this critique.

Back to The future. 2014

Back To The Future is a 1985 American comic science-fiction film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. The screenplay was rejected many times by the studios until Steven Spielberg took the opportunity and helped them produce it. The lead actors are Michael J. Fox, Christopher lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The actor Fox, who played Marty McFly had some difficulties in making the movie because he was filming a show called Family Ties at the same time and the producers of the show wouldn't let him film the movie. Eric Stoltz was cast to play Marty McFly but as time went they realized that he was a miscast. so Fox was called back in and this time he worked out time management with the show so he was able to do both.            

The movie was released on July 3, 1985 and became the most successful film of the year. It cost 19 million dollars to produce the film,but the end it was worth it because the film grossed more than 383 million dollars. For the great effort in making the movie, the movie won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film, and the Academy Award for Best Sound Effect Editing.

Back to the Future is based in 1985 in Hill Valley, a fictional town in California. Hill Valley is a small, residential town with a high school. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is our protagonist, a 17-year old who dresses like any 80’s rebellious, skateboarding teenager dressed in jeans, Nike shoes, a maroon shirt, a square pattern button-up shirt, a jean jacket, and an orange vest. Marty’s desire is to get back home to 1985 after he accidentally time-travels in a car, the Delorean to 1955. While he is stuck in 1955, he runs into trouble by having interrupted his parents’ meeting and the timeline of history. In order to make both time periods believable, the production and costume designers had to pay close attention to details. For example, the high school set in 1955 was believable because there were checkered-tiles on the floor. The costumes also reflected the 1950s style with the girls dressed in square-pattern skirts with button-up shirts and the boys wore khakis with button-up shirts and blazers.

Throughout the movie Marty always said “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything” Marty was inspired to say this quote by his dad because his dad alway said it, although he doesn't set his mind to accomplishing higher goals. Marty’s obstacle was a person...Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), our antagonist. Biff is a big, buff, rich and he is a bully. Since Biff was a bully he would always tell people “ What you lookin’ ar, butthead?” when people try to stop his bullying.

A brief summary of the movie Back to The Future, Marty's desire had two desires one was that he wants to get his parents fall in love again because he interfered with their meeting so by that he and his siblings won't exist. His other desire was that he wants to get back to his time 1985 because he accidentally traveled back to 1955. It all started when “Doc” (an scientist inventor) invented a time travel car with a DeLorean DMC-12. He showed Marty at 1:06 am at the twin pines mall parking lot. Two mad terrorist attacked them and killed Doc. Marty panicked so he got on the car and tried to get rid of the terrorist by going fast. The thing was that if the car goes more that 85 miles then it would travel to the date that is indicated on the display board, the date was 1955 where Doc came up with the machine the would make the car travel. So he traveled back in time and for trying to look for Doc in 1955 he accidentally met his dad and followed him. His dad was spying on a girl on a tree when he accidentally fell and was going to get run over but Marty saved his dad from the car accident but he actually interfered with his parents meeting because his mom told him how she met his father when her dad almost ran over his dad and they took him inside and thats where they met and fell in love. Now Marty must have his journey in finding and convince Doc that he is from the future and that he needs help from him to get back. He also needs to get (his dad) George to become brave, for his mother to fall in love with George instead of him. The climax was on the day of the dance (where his parents are suppose to kiss and fall in love) he sets his parents up but then Biff interferes locks Marty inside of a truck. Biff tries to abuse Lorien when George sees her and he stands up to Biff. In that moment Lorien falls in love with George and enter the dance as dates. The resolution of this intriguing movie was that after a few dances Lorraine and George kissed and stayed together, by them kissing they kept their children's existence (from the future) Marty was able to get his parents back together and he was late to his meeting with the his future time. When Marty got back his family changed because his family was rich the reason why was because since his father stood up for him self he didn't let Biff determine his future which he did in the beginning of the movie.

My favorite scene would be at the end when Marty makes plans with George so he can ask Lorraine to the dance. The plan was that Marty would bother Lorraine and George would come and hit Marty to stop bothering her. When he was going to bother Lorine Biff came punched Marty and locked him in a trunk and Biff started to harraz Lorraine. George came along and was going to proceed with the plan, he opened the door of the car and said:

George- Hey you get your damn hands of…

But as soon as he saw that it was Biff and not Marty he hesitated.

Biff- I think you got the wrong car Mcfly.

Lorraine- George help me please

Biff- Just turn around Mcfly and walk away. Are you deaf Mcfly close the door and beat it.

George- No Biff you leave her alone.

Biff- Alright Mcfly. You're asking for it and now your going to get it.

Mcfly tries to punch Biff but fail and he torches him. Lorraine tries to intervene but also fail and Biff throws her to the grown. Thats when George get courage and punches Biff by surprise and knocks him down.

This was my favorite scene because George was able to stand up and not let Biff bully him anymore and other people. Meaning that people should not be afraid of an obstacle or let anyone bully them, stand up and fight for yourself. Also because this was the part where Lorraine had a beautiful pink fluffy dress and George was cleaned up with a white tuxedo. Reflecting on the dialogue of this movie I think that the dialogue is believable because Bullies always try to act tough and by acting tough they say mean things and have attitude. Of Course the person that is being bullied won't say nothing because they are usually the people that are shy and don't talk much, so they won't defend themselves.

Thief

In the second unit of the course Stories we studied fables and characters. We learned about the 9 different types of characters and how they are represented. For example a confidante characters is a  human or animal that is the most trusted in the story. Fable are short stories that teach a lesson using animals as humans. For our action project we created a fable, we had to come up with a problem that bothers us that other people do. My lesson was that people should take what is not there's. I chose it because recently people take my stuff with out asking me, I don't mind sharing is just that they need to  ask properly. During this project the challenge I faced was not telling the moral directly or at the end, but at the end I liked my fable and I am proud of it.

  

KIS. Allana in Paris. 2014

KIS. Garden. 2014

One beautiful day Alanna, the white tiger went for a walk around Paris most beautiful and attractive area, the Eiffel tower. Alanna had time to go for a walk because she had a day off from working at a clothing store because asked for a day off because today was her Birthday.

“Where is Seth?” asked Alanna out loud. “He told me to meet him here.”

From a long distance, Alanna was able to recognize Seth coming her way. Once Seth reached Alanna he gave her a big hug.

Seth whispered “Happy Birthday” into Alanna’s ear.

“Thank you!” responded Alanna.

Seth and Alanna had been friends since sixth grade and have been there for each other all the time.

“Guess what? Happy birthday girl!” exclaimed Seth.

“What!” giggle Alanna.

“I got you a present”admitted Seth while bringing it out of the bag he had.

“You didn't have to Seth” said Alanna.

“I know but you are my best friend and you are going to like what I bought for you” responded Seth while handing the present to her. Alanna opened the present carefully because she didn't want to destroy the nice wrapping.

“OH MY.. It is a DIAMOND HEART ring!” shouted Alanna, “It is so beautiful Seth, thank you so much.”

“I knew that you were going to like it” assured Seth.

Alanna and Seth walked around then saw Kiki, a koala running towards them. “That Parrot took my favorite pair of diamond earrings!” cried out loud Kiki. The parrot was flying towards the Eiffel Tower and you can see that she had the earring because the sun shined on the earrings.

“I have heard of that parrot. I think her name is Maisy, she takes things that are shiny” said Seth, “I am sure that she had done this before.”

“I am so sorry Kiki” said Alanna in a sad voice.

After Kiki’s earrings got stolen they tried to think of ways to get it back. They thought for a while but all the ways to get the earrings included someone who can fly. Kiki started crying, Alanna and Seth tried to cheer her up but they didn't know how. So they decided to get her mind off it by taking her to a beautiful garden that was close to the tower.

“Hey look at those beautiful pink flowers!” Alanna exclaimed, breaking the silence. While Alanna pointed at the flowers the sun shined on her ring and the ring caught Kiki’s attention but also Maisy’s attention too.

“You should put your gorgeous ring away before that parrot Maisy takes it away like she did with my earrings.” sobbed Kiki. Alanna took off her ring and put it on her small handbag. The three of them walked for a while through the garden.

“Look!” Kiki surprised, “it is blue and purple flowers mix together.”

“Oh yeah! I see them” shouted back Alanna.

“Alanna, lets take a selfie all three of us with these flowers” suggested Kiki.

“Ok” responded Alanna.

Alanna took out her phone from her bag and put the bag on the floor to take a selfie. While they were taking it Maisy flew in really fast and took the bag.

“Noo!” shouted Alanna, “Give it back!” The three of them started to chase after Maisy but once they reached the Eiffel Tower they had to stop and they all started to sob.

“And I just got that ring” cried out Alanna.

“And I just payed for that expensive ring” continued Seth.

Meanwhile everyone was sad for the things they lost Maisy was celebrating another victory. “Oh I love this ring its so pretty, it goes perfectly with the colors of my feathers,” Maisy claimed out loud to herself. “I love all of these things that I took they are.. they are just so glamorous.” Maisy stayed looking down to see if she likes anything but as the hours went by she got hungry and she flew over everyone to see if there was anybody that would feed her. When she was flying a human saw her beautiful colorful feathers and her amazing wing span.

“I have never see a parrot like her” acknowledged Rob, “I must get her for my collection.”

Maisy found a slice of pizza on a plate with no one around.

“Ha I found my dinner without going through the daily trouble” blurted Maisy.

Maisy started to eat, she was enjoying her food, that she didn't notice Rob approaching her. Rob had some more food in a basket and in his hand. Maisy at first was suspicious but then she realize that she has never seen him before so he could have not known about the things she takes. Maisy started eating the things she gave him. She ate so much that she wasn't able to fly back up to the tower.

“Yes! you are mine beautiful parrot” cheered Rob.

Maisy tried to run away but she couldn't so she got captured and was taken away from all her precious jewels.