Response to "Former child soldier Ishmael Beah recounts his past.Full"

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kEL_LRBSqk

           This video is very eye opening and gives you a lot of insight into the horrible things that occur around the world. It reminds me of the movie "Blood Diamond", which showed the conflict in Sierra Leone over diamonds. A conflict which included the recruitment of child soldiers. In the video Ishmael describes the tactics the commanders used to get the children to kill. These were tactics like drugging them and blind folding them and then making them shoot people, and they did these things to desensitize the children. These same tactics were shown in "Blood Diamond" and in both cases proved to be very effective.

           The article "Teaching Kids to Kill" is similar and different to the video. To begin, there were tactics used by the army to desensitize children to the violence, in a way video games are doing this because they make it seem easy and nonpunishable. The article is different from the video because it is talking mostly about non military cases where children have fired weapons. These kids did not have adults directly telling them to commit these acts of violence, like in the case of Ishmael.

           From the video, I would challenge whether Ishmael is truly rehabilitated, because he has been through so much. I wonder if he is just a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. I also challenge whether he should be given so much notoriety, because he has done inhumane things in the past.

           I think it is important to note the severity of the wrongful acts committed in conflicts. These are things that we are oblivious to, yet they occur all over the world. It really helps us to see the wrong in these situations when we can see someone affected by them.

           I think that the creators of this video want to raise awareness of the issue at hand. Raising awareness for it will make people realize how horrible it is, and this will result in change.

Response to "Damascus air strikes 'kill nearly 200 in 10 days'"

Refrence: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31427471

           This article is addressing the conflict between the Syrian government and rebel group Army of Islam. More specifically it talks about airstrikes that span over the period of ten days and are being used to gain control of areas in Syria, by both parties involved. These airstrikes were launched by both the Syrian government and the rebel group, and have killed almost 200 people. A representative from the rebel group was quoted saying that their airstrikes were a result of the Syrian army bombing civilian areas. There is not much of a medical effort being made for those who were wounded, and this conflict does not seem to be slowing down.

           I believe that history repeats itself and does so continuously. If we take a look back into World War One, we can see that it was a continuous effort for each opposing group of countries to take over their enemies countries. This article is talking about the same things, just on a smaller scale. The Syrian government and the Army of Islam want to control areas of Syria, just like the British(and allies) wanted to control Germany and the Germans(and allies) wanted to control Britain. This broadens my understanding of this article because I have spent great amounts of time looking back into World War One and I learned that it was a fight for control, and I now understand that the conflict in Syria is just a struggle for power, peace will not be achieved until control is gained by either of the parties involved.

           I enjoy action movies and the greatest action movies are the ones about war. A movie I recently watched was titled "unbroken." This movie showed the conflict between USA and Japan, and goes in depth to show one mans life as a soldier. He is captured by the Japanese and is treated in a cruel manner until the Americans infiltrate Japan and rescue him. My article reminds be of this because America couldn't free their soldier until they got into Japan and had control of it. In Syria one group cannot be the leading power in an area until they have control of it.This expands my understanding of this article because it shows me the two groups reasoning behind the airstrikes.