Thursday, May 27, 2010

Osama Bin Laden and what would happen if he was captured



Bin Laden was born on March 10, 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
As a child, Bin Laden grew up being influenced by Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in the 1920’s. In school he was convinced by his teachers that it was good to join terrorist groups, because he would be rewarded with the gift of going to heaven if he used their methods. As a youth, he would meet with his Muslim Brothers and they would teach him about the Islamic religion and how it was a “political system achieved through violence”-Amy Zalman, Ph.D. Sources say, the Islamic religion doesn’t have any belief or rule about killing mass amounts of human beings to gain the reward of going to Heaven. Although Bin Laden was being taught that violence was the right way to solve problems, he went way out of his mind by attacking the U.S. Bin Laden and his Muslim Brotherhood went against the Islamic religious beliefs during the attack on the World Trade Center, heading towards the White House, and the Pentagon. Bin Laden is now the leader of Al Qaeda which is a section of the Taliban, the biggest terrorist group containing Muslims. “Al Qaeda was established by Bin Laden around1988, it helped recruit, finance, transport and train thousands of fighters from dozens of countries to be part of an Afghan resistance to defeat the Soviet Union.” “It has cells worldwide and is reinforced by its ties to Sunni extremist networks.” “Al Qaeda’s mission is to establish a pan-Islamic Caliphate throughout the world by working with allied Islamic extremist groups to overthrow regimes it deems "non-Islamic" and expelling Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim countries.”-Global Security. Bin Laden’s Muslim Brotherhood believed that when they got into what they call “Heaven” they will receive 500 virgins. This is because they think they are doing a favor for Allah by killing a mass amount of people.

Ever since the “9/11” attack on the World Trade Center the United States military has been trying to capture Bin Laden. We haven’t been able to find him because he has been hiding in remote mountainous areas near the border of Afghanistan. It isn’t easy capturing a man like Bin Laden because the area he is hiding is about 10,000 square miles of peaks and valleys against the Hindu Kush Mountains. There are so many holes and he could be hiding in one of them but we have no idea which one and that is why it is very hard to capture the famous Bin Laden.

If the United States caught Bin Laden he would most likely be tried in a U.S.Miltitary Court. There would be extreme pressure from the United States public to Bin Laden to trial quickly, however, politics and world opinion would likely cause delays and drag the trial out for a long period of time.
In the end, Bin Laden would most likely be found guilty of killing hundreds of innocent people and would be sentenced to death.

(500 words)

Friday, April 30, 2010

What happened behind The Greek Civil War (during the Cold War era)





The Greek Civil War started in 1945 and lasted through 1947. The war was fought between Greek Communists forces and the democratic, capitalist Greek Government Army. The Greek Communist movement gained power in Greece during World War II, when the Germans and Italians had occupied Greece, The Communist forces were backed by Moscow and were fighting against the German and Italian occupation forces. The British gave command that the Guerrilla should surrender their weapons and that the army should disband. During World War II, Britain sent over 40,000 troops to Greece in order to help the Communist forces push the German and Italian occupation forces out of Greece. As the occupation forces retreated from Greece, they destroyed all of the highways and railroads thus leaving the country in chaos. When the Greek democratic government was reinstated in Greece, the Greek Communist forces, now backed by Moscow and Yugoslavia, waged a war against the Greek democratic government army. This war lasted for two years when finally, Britain and the US sent forces and pushed the Communist revolutionary forces back to Yugoslavia.

The war left the country in horrible condition, the economy wasn’t doing well, miles of railroads were destroyed from raids of bombing, and the main cities such as: Solonika, Volos, and Piraeus, were left devastated from it all.

Although this war was an important moment in Greek history, there was also a very important and terrifying event that went on during the war. 28,000 children said to be fleeing the country, were abducted by Greek Communist rebels. These children were taken to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Rumania, where they would supposedly be re-educated and make the government mad by reaching a settlement on the leading of a partition of Greece “Macedonian” republic. People to this day believe that the children were not abducted but there is enough evidence to prove that they were. The Greek Communist rebels took advantage of these poor innocent children and made them blackmail the government because they didn’t want to take any credit for it. These children were pulled away from their homes, their mothers, everything. The Greek Communist rebels told all of the children’s parents that they would be sent to good homes and be very well taken care of. They also told them that they were better off there because the children would be in the safest place and would get a really great education. There plan was to destroy the youth of Greece by brainwashing the children with tactics on how to make the government mad. They weren’t getting what the rebels told their parents they were. They were being manipulated to do things they would never be doing at home. The rebels were charged with “genocide” and people now compare what they did to these children with what Hitler did to the Jews. The rebels would also use animals against animals for their movement and that was considered animal cruelty. Overall this act was uncalled for and the rebels shouldn’t have gone through with their plan.
Here is a passage from Sofia Makri: "They hung us from pine trees. They burned our feet with coals. They beat us. When we fainted they revived us with cold water from the spring. Fourteen of us died up there but we did not tell. When the Greek army entered our village they found the dead living, for out of the earth came our children." This passage describes the fear and terror of the children living away from their families.
(604 words)

Friday, April 2, 2010

The North African Campaign








The North African Campaign went on from June 1940 to May 1943. This campaign was between the Allies and Axis Powers. The war effort with the Allies was exiled by Britain and the USA, but the USA did not enter this war until 1941. The North African Campaign was also the also known as the Desert War. This war was fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts. There were three main reasons why this war was fought. The Axis Force primary objective was to control Suez Canal which was very important for controlling the Middle East. Another reason the Axis wanted control of Africa was to take control of the vast oil resources. The third reason, was that Adolf Hitler wanted world domination and Africa was his next target. The allies wanted to prevent the axis from reaching these objectives.
For Germany, The North African Campaign was a battle made up of mostly of tanks, panzershrecks, and light armed infantry. As for Britain’s troops, they were mostly made up of heavily armed infantry and a lot less tanks than the Germans. In this bloody battle, the British troops had to navigate mine fields that the Germans had built. The strongly outnumbered British troops lost many men in the minefields and endless artillery, the USA finally came into battle. When the USA came into battle, the Italians also came to help the Germans. When the Italians came in to battle, they had no say in anything whatsoever because Germans were leading and commanding the battle.
The leader of the German forces was Erwin Rommel who led his troops into the North African Campaign. His nickname was Desert Fox because he was commander of the Desert War. In the early phases of the North Africa Campaign Rommel successfully drove the British eighth army out of Libya to gain control of the territory. The leader of the British troops was Bernard Law Montgomery and the leader of the United States Army troops was General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower and Montgomery led the Allies and finally after three long years of battle, The Germans were flushed out of North Africa. When the axis retreated Africa, they were pushed all the way back to France. Then, a year later after restocking their ammunition and food supplies, the Allied troops stormed Normandy and pushed the Axis troop out of France.
The most famous battle of the North African Campaign was called the Kasserine pass. This battle Started on Feb. 14 1943 and ended on Feb. 22 1943. The Kasserine Pass is a three kilometer wide gap in the Grand Dorsal Chain in the Atlas Mountain Range. For this battle, Major General Lloyd Fredendall commanded the United States troops called the United States 2nd Corps. For the Germans, Field General Erwin Rommel commanded the German/Italian Panzer Army. The Battle started when The 10th and 21st Panzer Armies attacked Sidi-Bou-Zid. The U.S. armor was outmatched by the Panzer Armies meanwhile, the infantry of the U.S. poorly sat on the hills surrounding the battles and the opportunity to give mutual support was isolated. With barely any defensive terrain left the U.S. retreated leaving the German Forces over control of the Kasserine Pass.
For losing the battle, the German Commander Erwin Rommel was put into Jail. Later Rommel was also executed for losing the war. United States commander Eisenhower later became the President of the United States. Eisenhower served as President from 1953 to 1961.
In conclusion, The North African campaign was a very historic and significant battle, which was a great turning point in World War II. North Africa was one of the primary reasons that made D-Day (another famous turning point) possible because of the fact that the Middle Eastern oil resources fueled the ships that led the troops of D-Day into the heavily guarded beaches of Normandy.
(641 words)

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The meaning behind "The Scream" by Edvard Munch


“The Scream” was painted in 1893 and was also called the cry; Edvard Munch was the painter of this masterpiece we all wonder about. Edvard Munch was a great painter and created many different beautiful pieces. His art was very dramatic and sometimes saddening to the people that looked at it. He painted work similar to “The Scream” for personal reasons and he really expressed his own feelings into his art. “The Scream” was his most famous painting and was placed with other beautiful paintings by wonderful artists such as Gustav Klimt and many more.
“The Scream” was painted in the time period between the wars and expresses anxiety. Well, why was the masterpiece created in this time period? Because Edvard Munch showed in this painting that he was very overwhelmed and he had a fear of being in open spaces. When you see this painting after you know a little bit about Edvard Munch, you can examine all the details of the characters face. During the time that this painting was created, a volcano had erupted so that explains the red sky in the background. The figure in the painting is not screaming, but it is reacting to the nature around it. The reason why it is called “The Scream” is because the nature in itself is actually the one screaming. The red sky and the scenery around the figure show the effect of the volcano and how the nature is not very beautiful because of the disaster that just happened. Edvard Munch didn’t paint this as a cry for help but a precaution of what was going on in the world. While Edvard and his friends were walking along a path, he got inspiration for this painting. His friends kept walking but he stayed back because he had an instinct feeling that there was something wrong with nature at that moment. His friends just left him there as if nothing happened when something really bad was going on. Well, they have no idea what could happen to them. Edvard was a very smart man and they should’ve stayed back to listen to what he had to say but they didn’t.
The detail of this painting really shows how the world was at this time. If you look at the sky, you see that it is red and yellow and that would mean that the world wasn’t in a very good period of time. In his painting, he says a very interesting quote that really affects you when you read it and look at the painting. His art is designed to move people in ways you can’t even believe. Some people believe that he painted this with fear and pain but it wasn’t even like that. There is a reason why a lot of people think this is a painting all about fear and that is because the colors are not happy colors. You see how the sky looks bad and makes the surroundings look scary but they really are still normal parts of nature.
(506)

Here is a video about the painting that I found interesting :)