Writing About Contemporary Issues On Isis For My English Class

I just thought Id post my mid term paper from my English class up here tomorrow after I turn it in. Just wondering what people think of my writing. I didn't work to hard on it though because, I know that I could do better just don't be to brutal in the comments.

 

I will post it up around noon tomorrow, I still have the last section. I need to type out a 200-500 word essay on the beginning article.

 

Well Ill put what I have up now I guess, its still missing the last section like I said and the references which I will add tomorrow and put up here when I revise the rest.

 

I had to copy and paste because im not sure of another way to post it. Thank you to whoever actually reads it I put some time into this.

it is a bit of reading so be forewarned (open) it is a bit of reading so be forewarned (close)

English 101 8am
10/16/14
Learning about Contemporary Issues
Introduction to my topic
When I first learned that we were writing these summaries I was kind of unsure of what to write. At first I started to look at a lot of the current news articles and knowing about what was on the news for weeks about the terror group ISIS. So I had my ideas start growing from there. I didn't know much at first because I've only seen stories of ISIS on the news a few times and very briefly. I knew about the beheadings and that they were pushing their way through the province of Syria trying to invade Turkey. The little I did know I mostly learned from my cousin through facebook posts because, he is very prominent with keeping up on current events. So I decided to choose ISIS as my subject to write on.
Seven Weeks of News Summaries
Week 1: "The Gated Community of the Heart"
In the “Gated Community of the Heart”, Paul Rogat Talks about the decency and kind nature some people can have in unforgiving situations that happen in the world around us today. He states that with the way the economy seems at times under all the wealth are the poverty stricken, it saddens him and Paul confesses,"And it diminished me as a human being". Paul states that a lot more people are starting to become more wary about the approaching downfall of the economy and people being paid a lot less or being laid off. He argues that there are so many terrible things happening in our world like natural disasters and the scientists that are trying to help fix the problems in it of themselves. Paul infers that we as a human race can't act alone, but as a whole we can do great by helping others and getting involved. Paul shows that with every person who denies their responsibilities as a human being and moves on there is always someone who comes forward and helps make a difference.
Week 2: "Exploiting the ISIS Vulnerabilities in Iraq"
In this article Pregent, Michael basically talks about how the terror group ISIS aquired Russian weapons mostly shoulder mounted rockets with the ability to take down large aircraft and helicopters, but not able to destroy U.S. fighter jets. In June, ISIS collected a lot of very expensive U.S. military weaponry while forces Iraqi troops to fall back from their positions. ISIS now has a fair arsenal of really advanced weapons that they are now using across the province of Syria and Iraq. While ISIS may have the advantage of sophisticated weaponry on their side they still have major weaknesses that the kurdish militia and Iraqi armies are trying to take advantage of. One disadvantage for ISIS being that they are'nt able to maintain or repair any of their aqquired weapons. Michael also mentions ISIS should have about 30 M1 abrams tanks and howitzers that are working , but slowly losing stability. Since ISIS does not have the mainteance assistance that is very highly needed for these artillery and vehicles they will most likely eventually cease functioning.
Week 3: "Obama recruits 9 allied nations to combat ISIS"
In this article Cooper, Helene talks about what Obama has been doing about the war and terror the terrorist group ISIS has been creating. Obama has been working on trying to help the war efforts for Turkey in Syria, he has helped us get nine more allies to help with the war that ISIS is ensueing with the Turks, and with the help of former president George W. Bush is using military strategies that he formed while in office. While president Obama hasnt declared the fact that he hasnt planned any airstrikes yet in Syria, he compared the strategies of his that he used on Al Qaeda towards what he might try on ISIS in the near future. President Obama is still figuring out what he must do to counteract his efforts against ISIS, he doesnt want to get into the heavy costs of dealing with this type of foreign conflict and hes trying to avoid it if at all possible. So president Obama will still be planning airstrikes in place of american troops while trying to cut costs all the while.
Week 4: "Struggling to starve ISIS of oil revenue, U.S. seeks assistance from turkey"
Obama has been leading a campaign to sever funding from the Millions of dollars that Syria and Iraq make from there oil funding Sanger, David E. explains in this article. In Washington Plans are being made to deny the funding from Iraq and Syrais' oil revenue. That being said everyone knows the oil industry in Syria and Iraq is going very well and that is what is really helping out the terror group ISIS. The struggle there lies within because Turkey is still buying oil from Syria which in turn funds ISIS and this is just a vicious cycle. Turkeys inability to cut off the oil trade through its borders is making it very easy for ISIS to gain soldiers and help them gain support in there cause in hindsight is crippling them and will make things worse for the future. David quotes,"Like any sort of black market smuggling operation, if you devote the resources and the effort to attack it, you are unlikely to eradicate it, but you are likely to put a very significant dent in it," a senior administration official says.
Week 5: "Women Fight ISIS and Sexism in Kurdish Regions"
For many decades, women have been proudly serving in our military, but up until now they havent been able to pursue any combat roles like men do. Starting in 2016 women will be serving in combat roles for the first time ever. In other parts other the world its another story. In Kurdish they have been training women for combat for years. Kurdish women are very highly appaised for their skills in combat and a lot of Kurdish women are fighting in the war against the Islamic state a.k.a ISIS. Some of the Kurdish leaders think that a lot of the ISIS soldiers attitudes towards being killed by a woman are negative and that they deathly afraid that if they are killed by a woman they don't get to go to paradise. On the other hand its probably not true. Even though Kurdish women are placed so high in the Kurdish military the difference from women in the militia and a normal Kurd woman varies. All men and women in Iraq are considered equal but I digress.
Week 6: "In 'war on ISIS,' the main enemy is at home"
The war in Syria has been raging on for a while now and just yesterday the Turkish government allowed the U.S to launch airstrikes across the Turkish-Syrian borders on ISIS targets. The war with ISIS has escalated to a point where this just had to be done and that we needed to intervene like this. The airstrikes led against ISIS yesterday were aimed at their heavy armor and at the weapons that were stolen from U.S forces. There are a multitude of wars going on between eachother in these provinces of Iraq and Syria while they fight against one another. While alliances, may be temporary at times and only from a polital standpoint can one make sense of things. What many americans think is that we are the ones who are helping the good people in Syria as well, but we are not. With our airstrikes aimed for ISIS we are inadvertently killing millions of innocent people and noone should suspect that what the U.S is doing would liberate a region like that without terrible outcome.
Week 7: "Isis militants march on despite airstrikes, international outrage"
Iraqi soldiers are trying to hold their ground as the terrorist group ISIS keep getting closer and closer. Americas atempts at detering them and putting a stop to ISIS progress continually fails. They would be moving though Iraqi lines a lot slower if the Iraqi soldiers had better gear for what they are up against. ISIS is not backing down and they are willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead in this war, which is probably why Iraqi forces are tempted to back off and retreat. ISIS or otherwise known as The Islamic State of Syria is pushing very fast through the province of Syria. They captured a military base that was heavily guarded by Iraq forces and they had a heated battle until Iraqi soldiers fled and abandoned the base. What they really want to control is of Kobani, not far from the country Turkey, and they are getting what they want little by little. They are now currently fighting over three seperate areas on the borders of Turkey and the U.S says that we and our allies have launched airstrikes at the locations.
Main Issues or Themes
Looking back at the 6 articles I've summarized I found that the province of Syria and Iraq are very vulnerable right now and that ISIS has grown out of control away from the sight of other foreign governments. They have been gaining support and gaining members in their terrorist group for years and secretly until just recently. ISIS is not a force to be reckoned with and I see that if they keep going at the rate that they are they can overun a lot more than just Syria and Iraq. The things that our country are doing are very little and I think that the president needs to start approving more airstrikes against the leaders of ISIS. If ISIS learns how to maintain the weapons and vehicles that they keep aquiring the war efforts for our side will be much more difficult. If ISIS keeps pushing their way through Syria they will eventually have to fight their way across the border into Turkey and from thereafter it will be much more difficult to launch airstrikes against ISIS.
My Perception
Before I started working on my summaries, I had thought about ISIS as smaller and more organized terrorist group that just wanted attention and to be heard. I also thought of them as if they were trying to send out a message that they wanted something more than just attention but, more power. I was right in a way but, I was very off too. They are a very large organization of terrorists who are wageing a war in the province of Syria and trying to command much more than just that. ISIS is desicive and very well organized and have been mostly a very low key organization up until very recently.
My Insights
What I mostly learned from reading all the articles and watching all the news stories is that I feel like our government and the president are'nt doing enough to help the situation. I feel that we should'nt be having our technology and our weapons stolen and aquired from such terrible people so easily. If ISIS successfuly invades Turkey I think that we will have a lot more issues to deal with now and somehow our military figures out how they can fix the situation.
"The Gated Community of the Heart"
Paul Loeb's "The Gated Community of the Heart"

 

Yes im talking about the U.S. government, ill revise that. Thank you.

 

Never mind I'm not able to change it.

 

I finished my paper so here is the complete version. Enjoy

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English 101 8am
10/16/14
Learning about Contemporary Issues
Introduction to my topic
When I first learned that we were writing these summaries I was kind of unsure of what to write. At first I started to look at a lot of the current news articles and knowing about what was on the news for weeks about the terror group ISIS. So I had my ideas start growing from there. I didn't know much at first because I've only seen stories of ISIS on the news a few times and very briefly. I knew about the beheadings and that they were pushing their way through the province of Syria trying to invade Turkey. The little I did know I mostly learned from my cousin through facebook posts because, he is very prominent with keeping up on current events. So I decided to choose ISIS as my subject to write on.
Seven Weeks of News Summaries
Week 1: "The Gated Community of the Heart"
In the “Gated Community of the Heart”, Paul Rogat Talks about the decency and kind nature some people can have in unforgiving situations that happen in the world around us today. He states that with the way the economy seems at times under all the wealth are the poverty stricken, it saddens him and Paul confesses,"And it diminished me as a human being". Paul states that a lot more people are starting to become more wary about the approaching downfall of the economy and people being paid a lot less or being laid off. He argues that there are so many terrible things happening in our world like natural disasters and the scientists that are trying to help fix the problems in it of themselves. Paul infers that we as a human race can't act alone, but as a whole we can do great by helping others and getting involved. Paul shows that with every person who denies their responsibilities as a human being and moves on there is always someone who comes forward and helps make a difference.
Week 2: "Exploiting the ISIS Vulnerabilities in Iraq"
In this article Pregent, Michael basically talks about how the terror group ISIS aquired Russian weapons mostly shoulder mounted rockets with the ability to take down large aircraft and helicopters, but not able to destroy U.S. fighter jets. In June, ISIS collected a lot of very expensive U.S. military weaponry while forces Iraqi troops to fall back from their positions. ISIS now has a fair arsenal of really advanced weapons that they are now using across the province of Syria and Iraq. While ISIS may have the advantage of sophisticated weaponry on their side they still have major weaknesses that the kurdish militia and Iraqi armies are trying to take advantage of. One disadvantage for ISIS being that they are'nt able to maintain or repair any of their aqquired weapons. Michael also mentions ISIS should have about 30 M1 abrams tanks and howitzers that are working , but slowly losing stability. Since ISIS does not have the mainteance assistance that is very highly needed for these artillery and vehicles they will most likely eventually cease functioning.
Week 3: "Obama recruits 9 allied nations to combat ISIS"
In this article Cooper, Helene talks about what Obama has been doing about the war and terror the terrorist group ISIS has been creating. Obama has been working on trying to help the war efforts for Turkey in Syria, he has helped us get nine more allies to help with the war that ISIS is ensueing with the Turks, and with the help of former president George W. Bush is using military strategies that he formed while in office. While president Obama hasnt declared the fact that he hasnt planned any airstrikes yet in Syria, he compared the strategies of his that he used on Al Qaeda towards what he might try on ISIS in the near future. President Obama is still figuring out what he must do to counteract his efforts against ISIS, he doesnt want to get into the heavy costs of dealing with this type of foreign conflict and hes trying to avoid it if at all possible. So president Obama will still be planning airstrikes in place of american troops while trying to cut costs all the while.
Week 4: "Struggling to starve ISIS of oil revenue, U.S. seeks assistance from turkey"
Obama has been leading a campaign to sever funding from the Millions of dollars that Syria and Iraq make from there oil funding Sanger, David E. explains in this article. In Washington Plans are being made to deny the funding from Iraq and Syrais' oil revenue. That being said everyone knows the oil industry in Syria and Iraq is going very well and that is what is really helping out the terror group ISIS. The struggle there lies within because Turkey is still buying oil from Syria which in turn funds ISIS and this is just a vicious cycle. Turkeys inability to cut off the oil trade through its borders is making it very easy for ISIS to gain soldiers and help them gain support in there cause in hindsight is crippling them and will make things worse for the future. David quotes,"Like any sort of black market smuggling operation, if you devote the resources and the effort to attack it, you are unlikely to eradicate it, but you are likely to put a very significant dent in it," a senior administration official says.
Week 5: "Women Fight ISIS and Sexism in Kurdish Regions"
For many decades, women have been proudly serving in our military, but up until now they havent been able to pursue any combat roles like men do. Starting in 2016 women will be serving in combat roles for the first time ever. In other parts other the world its another story. In Kurdish they have been training women for combat for years. Kurdish women are very highly appaised for their skills in combat and a lot of Kurdish women are fighting in the war against the Islamic state a.k.a ISIS. Some of the Kurdish leaders think that a lot of the ISIS soldiers attitudes towards being killed by a woman are negative and that they deathly afraid that if they are killed by a woman they don't get to go to paradise. On the other hand its probably not true. Even though Kurdish women are placed so high in the Kurdish military the difference from women in the militia and a normal Kurd woman varies. All men and women in Iraq are considered equal but I digress.
Week 6: "In 'war on ISIS,' the main enemy is at home"
The war in Syria has been raging on for a while now and just yesterday the Turkish government allowed the U.S to launch airstrikes across the Turkish-Syrian borders on ISIS targets. The war with ISIS has escalated to a point where this just had to be done and that we needed to intervene like this. The airstrikes led against ISIS yesterday were aimed at their heavy armor and at the weapons that were stolen from U.S forces. There are a multitude of wars going on between eachother in these provinces of Iraq and Syria while they fight against one another. While alliances, may be temporary at times and only from a polital standpoint can one make sense of things. What many americans think is that we are the ones who are helping the good people in Syria as well, but we are not. With our airstrikes aimed for ISIS we are inadvertently killing millions of innocent people and noone should suspect that what the U.S is doing would liberate a region like that without terrible outcome.
Week 7: "Isis militants march on despite airstrikes, international outrage"
Iraqi soldiers are trying to hold their ground as the terrorist group ISIS keep getting closer and closer. Americas atempts at detering them and putting a stop to ISIS progress continually fails. They would be moving though Iraqi lines a lot slower if the Iraqi soldiers had better gear for what they are up against. ISIS is not backing down and they are willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead in this war, which is probably why Iraqi forces are tempted to back off and retreat. ISIS or otherwise known as The Islamic State of Syria is pushing very fast through the province of Syria. They captured a military base that was heavily guarded by Iraq forces and they had a heated battle until Iraqi soldiers fled and abandoned the base. What they really want to control is of Kobani, not far from the country Turkey, and they are getting what they want little by little. They are now currently fighting over three seperate areas on the borders of Turkey and the U.S says that we and our allies have launched airstrikes at the locations.
Main Issues or Themes
Looking back at the 6 articles I've summarized I found that the province of Syria and Iraq are very vulnerable right now and that ISIS has grown out of control away from the sight of other foreign governments. They have been gaining support and gaining members in their terrorist group for years and secretly until just recently. ISIS is not a force to be reckoned with and I see that if they keep going at the rate that they are they can overun a lot more than just Syria and Iraq. The things that our country are doing are very little and I think that the president needs to start approving more airstrikes against the leaders of ISIS. If ISIS learns how to maintain the weapons and vehicles that they keep aquiring the war efforts for our side will be much more difficult. If ISIS keeps pushing their way through Syria they will eventually have to fight their way across the border into Turkey and from thereafter it will be much more difficult to launch airstrikes against ISIS.
My Perception
Before I started working on my summaries, I had thought about ISIS as smaller and more organized terrorist group that just wanted attention and to be heard. I also thought of them as if they were trying to send out a message that they wanted something more than just the world to know about them but, also more power. I was right in a way but, I was very off too. They are a very large organization of terrorists who are wageing a war in the province of Syria and trying to command much more than just that. ISIS is desicive and very well organized and have been mostly a very low key organization up until very recently.
My Insights
What I mostly learned from reading all the articles and watching all the news stories is that I feel like our government and the president are'nt doing enough to help the situation. I feel that we should'nt be having our technology and our weapons stolen and aquired from such terrible people so easily. If ISIS successfuly invades Turkey I think that we will have a lot more issues to deal with now and if somehow our military figures out how they can fix the situation it would be greatly beneficial.
"The Gated Community of the Heart"
Paul Loeb's "The Gated Community of the Heart" at first glance when I tried comparing the two they didnt seem to sync up any similarities in my mind at all. I then looked through what I read in Loebs work and I found that even though he does'nt talk about war and bloodshed he does talk about how the world could fall to a collapse in the economy. The ways he goes into the problems that everyone faces and what you can think about that happens when a war effects an economy overall greatly affects everyone indirectly. Wars can be very costly and the way things are going on in Syria and the terrorist organization ISIS getting ever closer to Turkey nothing can be certain. While our government maps and plans out what they are going to do, the confliction between the Islamic state, the Turkish militia and the Iraqi people is growing even more out of control. In Loebs work he also explains that its better to help one another out especialy in times of great need like natural disasters, any kind of threat or bad situation that we as a people are in. If we have to intervene and send ground troops to Syria our economy will be affected immensly because we have already been in a long waging war in Iraq for years and another one will just add to our countries debt. In the end I didnt find much to compare to between both Paul Loeb's writing and my subject on ISIS but they both have an infuence on a shifting economy.
References
Cooper, H. (2014, Sep 06). Obama recruits 9 allied nations to combat ISIS. New York Times Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1560320079?accountid=44891
"Gated Community of the Heart": Loeb, P. (2010). Soul of a citizen (2nd ed.). New York, NY: St. Martins Press. (Original work published 1999) Retreived from http://books.google.com/books?id=hL...&resnum=1&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
In 'war on ISIS,' the main enemy is at home
http://www.workers.org/articles/2014/10/13/war-isis-main-enemy-home/
Isis militants march on despite airstrikes, international outrage
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/13/world/meast/isis-developments/index.html
Pregent, M., & Weiss, M. (2014, Aug 13). Exploiting the ISIS vulnerabilities in iraq. Wall Street Journal Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1552783609?accountid=44891
Sanger, D. E., & Julie, H. D. (2014, Sep 14). Struggling to starve ISIS of oil revenue, U.S. seeks assistance from turkey. New York Times Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1561786528?accountid=44891
Women Fight ISIS and Sexism in Kurdish Regions
http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/20...on&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body&_r=0