Well I guess this is it

During this semester as a first time college student I absorbed a whole lot of knowledge. In this class specifically I learned a lot about myself and also what is going on around the world. In this class I learned a lot about foreign affairs. I learned a lot about the dispute over land between the Jews and the Arabs. I knew that there was always a war going there over land but not much else. I knew the feud has been going on for basically ever but never really understood it in its entirety.
In this class I feel like I learned the skill of journalism. Every time we had to write a blog I felt like I was writing it for a newspaper or website. Feeling like this makes me pay more attention to what I'm reading. It makes me feel like im spreading my newly acquired knowledge to potentially the world or anyone that lands on my blogger page. Knowledge is power.

In this class I also learned a lot about myself. I always say myself as a neutralist because I never really cared about politics until this last election where Obama was re-elected. I found out that the political pert I agree with the most is the Democrats and I am a liberal. I never really thought about anything like this until this class and it had me very interested in the election. Although I did not vote I was very happy Obama won because some of Romney's plans were ridiculous. Well at least in my opinion. As a student I really learned to manage my time. Since it was an online class I always saved it for last but i always made time to do it and do it properly.

For the most part the class was amazing. All the topics were great but this blogger really grinds my gears. It was cool in the beginning because it was new and different to me then it really started to glitch on me. The whole reason I'm passing this in late is because it wouldn't publish so hit save tried refreshing it and poof, gone forever. If i could change on thing it would be the way these blogs are done because it is the most frustrating thing in the world when you lose all your work after working so hard on it.

 The best thing that I got from this class is taking the time to look at both sides of an argument. I was always very stubborn when it came to arguments and even if I knew I was wrong I would not admit it. Thanks to this class I now take the time to pay attention to both sides f everything and do more research as well. I find this really useful because it makes me seem more educated if I have more to say about both sides of any story. This will most definitely be my most used skill in future classes.

Im the guy in the middle!

We had a lot of great topics to write about throughout these fifteen weeks but my favorite was definitely the one about finding our political identities. This topic was particularly interesting to me because I wasn't sure where I stood politically. Since we went over this during election time it was even more interesting and i really enjoyed writing about this. 

I thought drones were only in Call of Duty

I think most males within my age group know what drones are from the very popular "Call of Duty" games. Just from playing the games I know that they can locate enemy position and even shoot missile to take out the enemy without putting one of our troops in danger. From what I have learned drones can be very useful in a lot of different ways. They can help gather enemy movements that can then be sent to ground troops so they know what to expect and where to expect it. Just that alone has the potential to save thousands of lives. Another thing that will save lives is the fact that there is no pilot on board for these drones. This means that if the drone is shot down or it malfunctions no lives would be lost. 

 Another great advantage of using drones is the ability to take out enemies without putting any of our troops in danger. Yes the missile can also take out a few civilians while taking out the enemy but at least the target is down. I know that sounds horrible but in war time im sure civilians are being killed regardless especially in a guerrilla war like the one we are facing now. Enemies can easily disguise themselves as regular civilians and do tremendous damage if they wanted to. The pros clearly outweigh  the cons. During war the thing that people worry the most about is obviously loved ones that are risking their lives every day to protect our country. If drones help keep death rates low wouldn't they be a great choice? 

Call of Duty screen shot of a drone missile 

I feel like a lot of the people that are against drones are the ones that dont take their time to actually do some research on them. Most of the articles that I have read always talk about how Obama isn't talking too much about them so they dont like it. Just because the president doesn't talk about them too much doesn't mean that you cant take the time to do a little research to see if drones are actually helping. People against drones say that drones are terrorizing children with the missile strikes which is really sad but I am sure that those humanitarian people that care about the innocent being affected care even more about our troops overseas. In reality there would be no real way to satisfy these people because its terrorizing people either way. Again I dont want to sund heartless and I know I am but during war we should only care about our country and ourselves.

If other countries can get their hands on this technology they too can see how beneficial drones can be. I know the damage that can be done with these drones so it would be scary if other countries had this power but other countries have nuclear arms that are way worse and we all seem to be doing fine with that. It is worth it to keep using this technology because everyone wold rather see drones die than troops.  Just like in Terminator drones can be good. 

In conclusion we should keep using drones until it is clearly proven that they are either good or bad. 

Until they are proven bad I will keep backing them up.

Syria-slee

Syria, A great country with great people is going through one of the worst crises our modern world has ever seen. This country is going through a civil war between what mostly everyone calls a terrible man Bashar al-Assad, and the Syrian Resistance group. This revolution started due to simple want of change from the Ba’ath party and dislike of their new leader al-Assad. Protests started to break out all over syria instigating change in the government so what the government decided to do was answer back with military power. The Syrian army started bombing different cities in order to stop this uprising but that just created the FSA (Free Syrian Army) to try and stop this terrible inhumane way of life in Syria.

FSA logo

There has been great controversy here in the United States weather or not we should intervene in the “Syrian Uprising” and both sides have really great points but I just don't think we should get ourselves involved in a war that isn't ours. Yes we have done it before in countries like Korea and that was successful but what if it was another Vietnam? The only real reason the United States wants to intervene is for oil and to establish democracy around the world. But is it worth potentially loosing thousands of American troops for some oil? To some the answer is yes but to me its no. If the United States intervenes it would just make more enemies and most likely end up loosing thousands of troops over a war that has nothing to do with us. 

Although it would help end the war in Syria in my opinion its just not worth it. If in fact this war ends up spreading into other countries like an article on Spokesman.com says might happen then maybe U.S. involvement would be necessary but only if close allied countries are involved. There are great benefits if involvement in Syria goes as planned like improve relations with Turkey and Qatar or If the U.S. trains the FSA we could have some one to fight Al Qaeda with us but what if things go wrong? 

We are just recovering from a recession and a debt worth over ten trillion 

We are just recovering from a recession and a debt worth over ten trillion dollars. The U.S. simply cannot afford to intervene in Syria’s civil war. The intervention in Libya cost over a billion dollars and an intervention in Syria could cost much more. We can’t afford to spend money we don't have on something that may or may not be for our benefit. We just got done with the longest war in American history (which really wasn’t a complete success) and we want to involve ourself in another. When U.S. forces were sent to Lebanon in 1982 they were quickly pulled out in 1983 because of the bombing of the Marine barracks. That was the day with the highest death toll in a single day for the U.S. since the end of the Vietnam War.

In conclusion the united states should not intervene in Syria for not only American deaths but also economically we cannot afford it. We are dealing with too much here at home that should be settled first before we get involved in other countries business. If anything the we should move into Syria after the FSA gains power only to help rebuild the country and help establish a democracy. Any allies that can be gained if we intervene immediately will eventually become allies regardless unless a third world war breaks out which is highly unlikely.

works cited

Rubin, Trudy. "Trudy Rubin: U.S. Involvement in Syria Is Risky - but May Be Necessary to end war." Spokesman.com. The Spokesman-Review, 07 Nov. 2012. Web. 8 Nov. 2012. <http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/nov/07/trudy-rubin-us-involvement-in-syria-is-risky-but/>.

Boot, Michael Doran And Max. "5 Reasons to Intervene in Syria Now." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/opinion/5-reasons-to-intervene-in-syria-now.html>.

Brooks, Mo. "U.S. cannot afford to intervene in Syria's civil war." Thehill.com. 25 July 2012. 08 Nov. 2012 <http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/239971-us-cannot-afford-to-ntervene-in-syrias-civil-war>.3

Katulis, Brian. "A Syrian Intervention Need Not Be Military-Focused." US News. 2 Feb. 2012. U.S.News & World Report. 08 Nov. 2012 <http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-the-us-intervene-in-syria-with-military-action/a-syrian-intervention-need-not-be-military-focused>.