Due Thursday, December 6

Due Thursday, December 6

1. Have an outline of the last essay posted to D2L and ready to discuss on the 6th. Your final draft will be due on the 13th, the day of our final.

2. Please do this self-evaluation related to unit 3 and essay 3.

3. Consider consulting some of the sources below to assist in your research for the last paper. Some at the top are videos you can watch on your computer. Some are articles on a range of subjects, including a September 4, 2001 article (right before 9-11) about US research for germ warfare.

If you see an article you'd like to check out, paste the URL/web addresses into your browser:

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Video, or video-related:

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Iraq For Sale:
The first video we watched for this unit was called Iraq for Sale, and was about war profiteers. Below are two links to the web site for the film, which includes some short video segments.


Iraq For Sale - Trailers & Clips
http://iraqforsale.org/videos.php

Iraq for Sale - about the film
http://iraqforsale.org/about.php

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Why we Fight
The second film that we watched for this unit, just this last Thursday, was Why We Fight. The web site below includes short video segments (including segments of the Eisenhower speech warning America about the Military-Industrial Complex), information about the film, and additional information.

Why we Fight - main menu, video clips
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/main.html

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War Made Easy
Norman Solomon has made a film, narrated by Sean Penn, called War Made Easy. I have not yet seen the film, but have seen some of the clips below, and many are interesting and thoughtful, and related to the topic of our current unit.

War Made Easy - video part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6mw-nzt704&feature=related

War Made Easy - video part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVSYRYlPVbk&feature=related

War Made Easy - video part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjjdKb5pE2E&feature=related

War Made Easy - video part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeY23c7wOj4&feature=related

War Made Easy - video part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZA8qJf19zI&feature=related

Normon Soloman speaking about War Made Easy - part P1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkrQQ_kwRF8&feature=related

Normon Soloman speaking about War Made Easy - part P2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JtJjVAieV4&feature=related

Normon Soloman speaking about War Made Easy - part P3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhsf100E8cw&feature=related

Normon Soloman speaking about War Made Easy - part P4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx5CFHi-W8Y&feature=related

Normon Soloman speaking about War Made Easy - part P5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GABs0brzSg&feature=related

Normon Soloman speaking about War Made Easy - part P6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3TTyID91kw&feature=related

Normon Soloman speaking about War Made Easy - part P7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFBB8u7SCl4&feature=related

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Below is a link to another film, or parts of a film, about Peak Oil, which may be one of the handful of factors contributing to an increasing risk of more wars in the coming decades. After that is an article from early 2001 related to the Bush energy policy.

A Crude Awakening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HRZPpbpSjg&feature=related

May 2001
Wired:
Bush's Energy Plan: A Fossil?
Farhad Manjoo 05.07.01 | 2:00 AM
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2001/05/43556

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Articles:
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Surviving after oil
Some of you expressed an interest in exploring the "prepare for war" option for the last essay, with an emphasis more on planning for survival as individuals than for planning for victory in every war. If you're interested in taking this approach, below is one article, one place to start, and then a few resources from another web site. Some of these resources seem very hopeful and practical, about gardening and self-sufficiency, but others seem like the paranoid raving of conspiracy theorists.

Preparing for life after oil
http://www.alternet.org/audits/66625/

Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
(See the "Preparedness Store" along the top menu)

http://www.postoilliving.com/Articles.html

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Empire
Some students expressed an interest in the "prepare for victory in war" option, with an emphasis on a world empire controlled by the US. Some might say we've already arrived at a world economic empire dominated by the US.

Here are some resources that are *pro*-empire:

General Resources:
http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/neocon/spheresInfluence.html

Key Figures:
http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/neocon/index.html

General Commentary/Analysis:
http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/neocon/mead.html

And here are some resources that are *critical* of empire:
- an article by Chalmers Johnson,
retired CIA analyst featured in the film, Why We Fight.
Article: "Nemesis on the Imperial Premises"
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/160594/chalmers_johnson_nemesis_on_the_imperial_premises

You could Google for other articles on American empire by Chalmers Johnson (he's considered an expert of sorts on the view that is critical of empire).

The American Empire Project is often critical of American Empire:
http://www.americanempireproject.com/

Here's their forum, which includes discussion of the pro's and con's of American Empire in the form of economic globalization:
http://www.americanempireproject.com/forum/toast.asp

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"Lysistrata" - themed resources:
Below are some resources involving otherwise relatively powerless people who, like the women in the Lysistrata story, are thinking outside the box to find and use their power to attempt to effect change.

Bye bye miss american empire
(An article by a man from New England who favors having states whose population opposes Empire work toward secession, or in other words, leaving the "union" of the United States in favor of national independence as smaller nations--and yes, this is like what led to the US Civil War. It sounds very unlikely, but right now we have polls showing that a majority of the population of the US is against the war in Iraq, so if enough states at least passed resolutions to consider secession, it could send a strong message to Washington about the failure of elected leaders to listen to the wishes of the people.)
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/311/

It’s Time to Stop the War Ourselves
(About a group of people thinking outside the box, looking for unconventional ways to work against war and in favor of peace.)
Published on Friday, November 30, 2007 by Yes!
by Aimee Allison and David Solnit
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/30/5530/

Students and Iraq Veterans Engage in Non-Violent Civil Disobedience to Launch 'Out of Our Schools—Out of Iraq' Campaign
(Pretty much what the title says - working against military recruiters in the schools.)
http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1130-03.htm

US War Vets to Speak Publicly About War Crimes
by Aaron Glantz
Published on Friday, November 30, 2007 by One World.net
(About Iraq war veterans who have either committed or witnessed war crimes, and who are going to speak publicly about them--like some Viet Nam veterans did, which may have contributed to the end of the Vietnam War.)
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/30/5538/

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Germ Warfare:
I mentioned the role germ warfare might play in future wars. Some students expressed interest, surprise, or moral repulsion at the thought. If you're interested in looking into it, consider some of the sources below.

U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits
by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad
Published on Tuesday, September 4, 2001 in the New York Times
(In other words, published only a few days before 9-11)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0904-02.htm

Published on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
The Genetically Modified Bomb
by Thom Hartmann
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0910-15.htm

The Avian Flu Fright is Politically Timed
A Public Health Warning and Political Essay
by Dr. Leonard Horowitz
Global Research, October 12, 2005
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20051012&articleId=1071

Now for GM* weapons (*Genetically Modified Weapons)
It's time to get tough with the biotech firms over germ warfare
Jeremy Rifkin
Thursday September 27, 2001
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,558767,00.html

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Reduced Veteran's Benefits
I mentioned that, if you want to plan for war, you have to interest people in joining the military. But instead of making the military more attractive by increasing benefits, benefits have been cut. The article below deals with these reductions.

The Soldier and the Student
by Aaron Glantz
Published on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 by The Nation
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/28/5488/

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Some other general resources related to the theme of our last unit:

War Profiteer Knows How to Party
by Sarah Anderson
(about a very rich war profiteer)
Published on Thursday, December 1, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1201-30.htm
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Newt Gingrich on phony war, on losing war
(Conservative Republican Gingrich, critical of the war and the Bush administration's strategy to fight terrorism)
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000784
http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=5767
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Have They No Shame?
by Amy Goodman
(more about Abu Ghraib, demoted Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who became one of the scapegoats for the Abu Ghraib scandal, and tolerance of, or cover-up for, torture)
Published on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 by TruthDig.com
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/28/5489/
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Klein: In War on Terror, Are You Next?
by Shaunna Murphy
Published on Thursday, November 29, 2007 by Washington Square News (New York)
(...more from Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine (we watched the short video).
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/29/5499/