Iraq War Essay Example for Free

Iraq War Essay The past decade had been one of the few significant eras for international relations and international politics. Various activities and phenomenon had occurred which made such era a memorable moment in which the topics of decision making including the people whom creates and enacts the decisions had become significant. One of the numerous events which had occurred in the past happened during the day of September 11, 2001 in which two buildings in New York City were seen by all the people in the world to be crashing slowly in front of their eyes. This news was spread in different parts of the world and made a mark in the history. The violent actions or the terrorists created a difference in the relationship of various states most especially United States and also led to different actions of the offended state. As said by different analyst, newspaper columns and politicians, it is said that one of the major results of the September 9, 2001 event was the war in Iraq which was launched by the United States. Many various speculations were theorized by the different people and one of the most common speculations was that United States wanted to have revenge against the terror that they have experienced. Different theorists have presented their point of view regarding the situation and stated that the few reasons were: 1. the September 9, 2001, Saddam Husseins stock of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the stock of oil in Iraq. The three speculations were the most talked about and debated by known personalities in politics and in media. As the war continues on, the interest of the United States were slowly presented to the world. After the United States invaded the state of Iraq, the troops of the Americans seek for the weapons of mass destruction but then, the group was not successful in finding any weapon which could threaten the whole world. The prosecution of Saddam Hussein became the last reason for the United States to occupy Iraq. However, the United States did not leave Iraq immediately—which was expected by most of people at watch of the situation. The situation of Iraq war was influenced by different actors within the international community. Different organization as well as individuals became involved in the resolution and the activities of the War in Iraq. The most significant personality in the Iraq war was President George W. Bush Jr. The United States President acted as the main person that lead the whole nation to war and encouraged the world to join in the battle against terrorism. Another actor was the former Prime Minister of United Kingdom Tony Blair. Tony Blair, together with President Bush teamed up in order to fight the violent groups in which promoted terroristic activities. The United Nations also became a great part in the actions in which the United States had taken. The organization of the United Nation became the actor in which the actions of United States were justified. The United Nations was one of the international organizations in which supported the mission of the United States to pursue its goals to put a stop in the violent actions of groups and individuals. Another great influence in the decision to attack and invade Iraq were the republicans in which were really persistent in the promotion of war against terrorists. For the masses to understand the decision making processes in the Iraqi war the theoretical framework called â€Å"Global Complexity† was used by McGoldrick in order to understand the process as well as the decision making of the actors. McGoldrick provided the â€Å"tipping points† which he took from John Urrys definition: â€Å"three notions: that events and phenomena are contagious, that little causes can have big effects, and that changes can happen in a non-linear way but dramatically at a moment when the system switches† (McGoldrick 2004, p. 8). However, in the written work of Daniel Masters and Robert Alexander they stated that President George Bushs administration molded the war related to September 9, 2001. The administration became the â€Å"front† of the whole state to justify the actions that the state had made. The authors stated that President George Bush made use of the situation of the devastating event and then made the hearts of the American Nation follow to the desires as well as the beliefs of the President. (Masters and Alexander, n. p. ) References Masters, D. S. and Alexander, R. M. (2007, Mar) Framing War: The 9/11-Iraq link and public support for the Iraq War Paper presented at the annual meeting of the WESTERN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, La Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada. Online PDF Retrieved 2008-08-20 from http://www. allacademic. com/meta/p176638_index. html. McGoldrick, Dominic. (2004) ‘9-11’ To the ‘Iraq War 2003’: International Law In An Age Of Complexity. Oxford and Portland, Oregon: Hart Publishing.

Imagination in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner versus Kubla Khan Essay

To the Romantics, the imagination was important. It was the core and foundation of everything they thought about, believed in, and even they way they perceived God itself. The leaders of the Romantic Movement were undoubtedly Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his close friend, William Wordsworth. Both were poets, and both wrote about the imagination. Wordsworth usually wrote about those close to nature, and therefore, in the minds of the Romantics, deeper into the imagination than the ordinary man. Coleridge, however, was to write about the supernatural, how nature extended past the depth of the rational mind. In two works by Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, both works regard the imagination as vitally important. In the Ancient Mariner, the imagination (or rather, the lack of it) condemns the Mariner to a kind of hell, with the fiends of sterility, solitude, and loneliness: â€Å"’God save thee, Ancient Mariner, from the fiends that plague thee thus! Why look’st thou so?’ ‘With my crossbow I shot the Albatross’†. In Kubla Khan, the imagination of an external being, the narrator that Coleridge created, the ideal critic, can create a masterpiece that far outstrips the meager piece of work that even the emperor of a huge, rich civilization can produce: â€Å"I would build that dome in air, a sunny dome! Those caves of ice! And all who heard should see them there, and all should cry, Beware! Beware!† In Kubla Khan, the imagination can even make people fear an otherwise inconsequential event, sequence, or organism. However, in the two works by Coleridge, the imagination takes on different roles in each world. In the Ancient Mariner, the imagination is the substance that holds all life together, much like how the millio... ...ubla Khan, the imagination is more of a physical, creative force, with more raw power than finesse. With it, works such as a pleasure-dome full of physical paradoxes can be inspired, created, and described, far better than with the words of a critic alone â€Å"A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!†. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner has it that the imagination is more of an intangible force, subtle yet with as much power as the imagination in Kubla Khan. It connects the huge array of creatures on the Earth together, and without the imagination, they would, die in the end, one by one. However, in both works, there is a mutual consent that the imagination allows the imaginer to gain insight into many wondrous, spectacular, and otherwise incomprehensible feats and workings of nature, things that cannot be explained by the mere application of reason and mathematics alone. Imagination in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner versus Kubla Khan Essay To the Romantics, the imagination was important. It was the core and foundation of everything they thought about, believed in, and even they way they perceived God itself. The leaders of the Romantic Movement were undoubtedly Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his close friend, William Wordsworth. Both were poets, and both wrote about the imagination. Wordsworth usually wrote about those close to nature, and therefore, in the minds of the Romantics, deeper into the imagination than the ordinary man. Coleridge, however, was to write about the supernatural, how nature extended past the depth of the rational mind. In two works by Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, both works regard the imagination as vitally important. In the Ancient Mariner, the imagination (or rather, the lack of it) condemns the Mariner to a kind of hell, with the fiends of sterility, solitude, and loneliness: â€Å"’God save thee, Ancient Mariner, from the fiends that plague thee thus! Why look’st thou so?’ ‘With my crossbow I shot the Albatross’†. In Kubla Khan, the imagination of an external being, the narrator that Coleridge created, the ideal critic, can create a masterpiece that far outstrips the meager piece of work that even the emperor of a huge, rich civilization can produce: â€Å"I would build that dome in air, a sunny dome! Those caves of ice! And all who heard should see them there, and all should cry, Beware! Beware!† In Kubla Khan, the imagination can even make people fear an otherwise inconsequential event, sequence, or organism. However, in the two works by Coleridge, the imagination takes on different roles in each world. In the Ancient Mariner, the imagination is the substance that holds all life together, much like how the millio... ...ubla Khan, the imagination is more of a physical, creative force, with more raw power than finesse. With it, works such as a pleasure-dome full of physical paradoxes can be inspired, created, and described, far better than with the words of a critic alone â€Å"A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!†. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner has it that the imagination is more of an intangible force, subtle yet with as much power as the imagination in Kubla Khan. It connects the huge array of creatures on the Earth together, and without the imagination, they would, die in the end, one by one. However, in both works, there is a mutual consent that the imagination allows the imaginer to gain insight into many wondrous, spectacular, and otherwise incomprehensible feats and workings of nature, things that cannot be explained by the mere application of reason and mathematics alone.

Direction and Purpose Essay

Metaphors provide creative images for readers. They give flavor to literature and allow free interpretation of a piece; thereby making a conversation in a story, an image in a poem, a symbolism in the plot and such, more interesting. Through the use of such a figure of speech, the images are laid bare and presented fresh. This creates an interaction between the reader, the author and the piece; as readers are made to analyze the images presented and the idea that the metaphor is trying to introduce. It seems the poem, â€Å"Manila†, efficiently develops the metaphor that is the Philippines society during the colonial era, through a timeline. It takes the problem of colonial Manila into the modern Filipino mindset. The poem begins with an introduction [Lines 1-3], which gives us the first glimpse of the similarities between the city of Manila and the hermit crab. The succeeding stanzas [4-8] elaborate the physical conditions of the country’s capital and finally, the poem concludes [l9-14] with the mentality upheld by the nation. To appreciate how metaphors lay bare Espino’s â€Å"Manila†, let us analyze the imagery create in the poem, line by line. Unlike most poems, â€Å"Manila† begins with an epigraph from Nick Joaquin, which reads: â€Å"Dust and crabs, dust and crabs.† We can assume that this quote gives a foreview of what Federico Espino’s poem will highlight. Though very little is conveyed in this line, we are able to suppose that the metaphor will hold significance to the poem proper. Dust may be described as either something that depicts age or some remains of an explosion. We also know of crabs as an animal that crawls and has claws. Crabs are also able to survive on land for short periods of time and can literally live on dust. â€Å"Manila† begins with the line: â€Å"A hermit crab beside the tide of times,† if we look at the concept of the hermit crabs as a description of Manila, the line merely tells us that time has passed. It tells us that Manila has an old history and that it has endured much. The next line: â€Å"She bears the traces of her former homes/ the shells of foreign cultures and the slime,† tells us that the country’s history contributes much to its identity. The city has withstood much to the point that it is now isolated and delayed in comparison to the developments of other countries. The â€Å"former homes† are the shells that the crab has already left behind. The â€Å"foreign cultures† such as that of the Spanish, British, Japanese and Americans have all freed the country, yet their influences – dating back to colonial times – still linger. But as hermit crabs changes its shell, Manila now looks for a new â€Å"shell† of protection as she enters another era – whilst trying to retain its identity. Even with the passing of time, the mix of culture is still protected and preserved, which the narrator describes as both positive and negative – implying that though the foreigners have given us a rich culture, they have made us endure much â€Å"slime† and shit (considering that slime is a gastropod’s mucus secretion) in order to take what was rightly ours – freedom. In the succeeding lines: â€Å"Now she looks for food as small waves comb/Upon the shore where bits of driftwood lie†, we now see a direction in the poem. Again it highlights how the hermit crab searches for something and we now see she looks for food. Keeping in mind that food is parallel to life – since it is necessary in sustaining life – the hermit crab looks for nourishment in a place which seemingly has very little to give. From Nick Joaquin’s â€Å"Sa Loob ng Maynila†, we understand the devastation in the city when it served as the center of the revolution, and we see that starting anew is difficult when one is left on what is being portrayed as a deserted island. As expected, â€Å"she finds nothing in her hungry quest/ Instead she hears the raucous seagull’s cry/ Which is a shriek beyond the rock-ribbed nest.† In these lines, the seagulls – natural predators of the hermit crab – are foreign countries. We can assume that not only are we looking up at the seagulls but that they are also in a position to take advantage of us. In relation to the Philippines’ history, foreign countries are soaring. Other countries progress and it is a mockery when – ironically – the countries we defeated fighting for our independence are now more stable than we are – they still rise above us. We are still beneath them in a sense to the point we have to crawl in order to get anywhere. These lines are merely creating the image of a third world country. All seems futile, especially when you have nowhere else to go. â€Å"It mocks her as she crawls upon the sand— The sidewise movement of the hermit crab/ Which Dylan saw on a deserted strand/ And used as a metaphor in runes that throb† It is possible that Dylan represents a foreigner (since it is a typical name for an American boy) and he saw our â€Å"aimless wandering† and toke advantage of it – however, this is more of a hunch than a legitimate argument. What is clear though, is the point of our sideways movement, which is the natural direction a hermit crab follows. By this we can concur that the movement has become innate. We are not moving forward. We want so much, yet work so little. Perhaps, these lines also imply that we search in all the wrong places. â€Å"With life. Yes, this city is a pair of claws/ Creeping, crabbing with all its tragic flaws.† These last lines of the poem summarize the intent of the entire poem. Here it is implied that the people of the Philippines are aware of the damage in their society. Slowly, almost lifelessly, the Filipinos attempt to move through the things we dislike in our country. We complain so much yet we do very little – and perhaps that is our downfall. True there is no prefect nation, but in most nations you see a progression. In reference to Nick Joaquin’s opening epigraph, perhaps the dust is the remains of those countries that once colonized us. We never bothered to clean up what was left to us – good and bad. Espino hints that perhaps that is why we are not moving forward, there is too much to fix all at once. And this can be related to what we call â€Å"crab mentality† or the Filipinos’ attitude of clawing at those who have gotten ahead to pull them back again. We â€Å"creep† and â€Å"crawl† in our own flaws – in our own mistakes – instead of picking ourselves and walking. It is our own claws that hold us back. The generalizations made by Espino are obvious. Though the title is â€Å"Manila† is it clear that the city, being the â€Å"heart† of colonial Philippines, is a synecdoche for the entire country. And when all aspects of Espino’s Manila are examined, we see that the metaphor is in the intricate, descriptive design of the Philippines as a hermit crab trapped on a deserted island. Though she is attempting to escape, she is crawling blindly in no particularly direction. It seems not much has change. Though â€Å"Manila† was written a long time ago, it is relatively surprising that the text paints Manila in a sad, accurate manner. We fought for our freedom. Now we merely struggle with it. It seems our nation cannot decide independently; like a hermit crab, we depend on our symbiotic relationships. We cannot survive alone and we rely on what can be give to us by those who â€Å"protect† us. The dependence relayed in the poem explains why we have no direction, no purpose, and no resources. We are – truly – stuck.

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