"Enhanced Interrogation" Techniques

Following the terrorist's attacks on September 11th, 2001 fear and terror spread nationwide. The Bush administration was quick to respond declaring war with the terrorists that were responsible, Al Qaeda, and all nations that harbored them. The Bush admin had Iraq especially in mind, convinced that Iraq held some responsibility behind the attacks and later pursued war Iraq, despite the lack of evidence in involvement (even as the war ended there was no evidence of Iraq involvement in acts of terror). As the US continuously fell short in locating Osama bin Laden and other members of Al Qaeda, tensions in the White House grew. The US granted substantial amounts of money to anyone who would turn in those suspected to be guilty of terrorism. Whether actually guilty or not anyone was subject to be captured and determined to have associations with Al Qaeda, with no authorization to trial. With a group of lawyers backing the Bush administration, a series of legal memorandums were written, granting incredible presidential power while also legally authorizing extreme measures of interrogation. Known as the Torture memos of 2002, John Yoo and Jay Bybee wrote 131 pages worth of legal memos that redefined torture in the most obscene of ways and lastly determined that torture must have been the overall objective to be considered torture. These memos legally justified interrogation methods such as waterboarding, stress positions, and physical, psychological, and sexual torment and abuse. Ironically, these exact methods were deemed illegal and considered to be war crimes under the Geneva Convention, which was heavily influenced by the United States in 1987 following the Korean War, when many American soldiers were tortured. These well-known torture memos that were written for the Bush administration are still active and can still hold up in the court of law today. 

This is absolutely preposterous. These memos should be retracted immediately for several reasons. 

For starters, torture has been proven to be completely ineffective. The excruciating pain sustained leads detainees to admit to false confessions, in hopes that submission will make the torture stop. However, even if it did work, it is evil, leading me to my next point, torture is completely inhumane and immoral. Torture does far more harm than good, no matter the circumstance. Lastly, revamping the laws on torture are of the utmost of importance for the safety of Americans, especially those involved in combat. The US justifying acts or torture will only lead to other countries permitting the same actions against American soldiers and civilians. Additionally, false admittances of Afghanistan detainees that were tortured included falsely admitting Iraq's connection to terrorism leading to the unnecessary Iraq war with over 4000 US casualties, over a hundred thousand Iraq casualties and billions of dollars. To save the face and people of the United States we must address this issue immediately, do away with these legal memos, and restructure our system to destroy these loopholes our politicians have capitalized on.

Abortion has been an incredibly controversial topic for many decades. Currently, abortion is legal in all 50 states of the US, however more and more laws are being passed to limit the availability of abortions as well as restrictions to make it more difficult. In the blog, Ohio Bill That Bans All Abortions by Jeta Brovina, its discussed that the lawmakers in Ohio have pushed a bill that suggests to ban all abortions and even seeks to press charges, in extreme measures against those that undergo the procedure, or the doctors that performed it.
                I will be the first to agree that I too find this bill to be absolutely absurd. Banning abortion alone completely infringes the rights of women and punishing them for a medical procedure is unconstitutional. Although I completely agree with Brovina, I feel that some additional points could have been discussed to strengthen her opinion and influence the readers. It would have been helpful to have a link to the original article to understand the facts of the bill being passed. One important statement that stood out to me was the statement made by the United Nation Humans Right Council insisting that to force a pregnant woman to carry a fetus to term unwillingly or unwantedly, is arguably torture, which was not mentioned or commented on in this editorial. Brovina could have also mentioned some of the factors that lead women to make a decision such as abortion. Those reasons including poverty, health issues of the child or the woman, or women that were raped. Discussing these explains some of the reasons she opposes the bill. Brovina discusses that she feels that rather than banning abortion other health programs should be established, but didn't elaborate on any specific ideas. I completely stand by the opinion regarding the matter, but find it important to back an opinion with reason. 

Climate Change

There is no denying the reality of Climate change. Climate change is having serious effects worldwide, including in the United States. Other countries around the world have recognized the severity of climate change and have begun implementing plans to reduce global warming. Meanwhile, the United States is the only country to refuse to sign the Paris Climate Agreement and appears to work in the opposite direction. Here are a few of the regressed decisions that have been made over the past year: Trump has put in a repeal of the Clean Power Plan that was set in place to reduce emissions by the Obama administration.Trump is planning to sale millions and millions of acres along the West Coast and the Gulf of Mexico to oil drillers while removing some of the requirements of the oil drillers that protect against pollution and oil spills. Trump's administration is also pushing to decrease The Environmental Protection Agency's overall budget by 30 percent.  

Being one of the worlds largest output of Greenhouse gas emissions, the United States should be taking charge and leading the way to omit contributing factors of climate change. Our government needs to address the Environmental Issues we are all facing and implement plans that will assist in the overall health of the environment.

The first step that needs to be taken is to properly educate our society about the major effects of climate change and the costs of it to our environment but also to every individual. Given proper information and understanding, our communities will see the importance and begin working together. Climate Change has resulted in numerous natural disasters. Last year, the U.S alone suffered through one of the most active years for hurricanes, floods, wildfires, droughts, and tornados. These disasters took the lives of many, destroyed homes, left hundreds with no food, water, or shelter. It is very clear that this is just the beginning and much more yet to come. As the climate continues to deteriorate so will our weather, agriculture, energy water, and food supply.  Additionally, the disasters cost billions, Hurrican Harvey cost nearly $200 billion alone. Health risks will also rise. Poor air quality will lead to chronic illnesses such as asthma and severe allergies. There will be a rise of infectious disease caused by insects, rodents, and increased rain. Food and water will become increasingly more scarce.

To avoid any further detrimental events, action to increase environmental regulation needs to take place. These regulations would need to include banning all plastic products, require renewable energy such as solar and wind panels and discontinue oil drilling and fracking, production of only fuel-efficient vehicles and energy efficient appliances, establish better waste management and preserve more wildlife.  These solutions may be time-consuming and costly, however, ignoring global warming and refusing to address environmental issues now will cost us much more, possibly our planet's future.

Keep your friends close and keep your enemies closer

    The Olympics are over and now the world is waiting to find out what North Korea is going to do with their nuclear weapons.  Does America need to prepare themselves for a nuclear apocalypse or can we finally loosen our ties and relax without the fear of the end of the world coming.  While we wait the suspense builds up, yet we, unfortunately, have to live our lives.  In a recent article written on March 3, 2018, by The Huffington Post called It Only Takes One Trump Tweet To Fall Into North Korea's Trap is answering the questions that Americans have been on edge wondering what is happening.
        On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that he and North Korea leader, Kim Jong-Un, agreed to meet for the first time ever face-to-face between a U.S president and a North Korean leader.  I believe that this article is written for anyone that is interested in politics and has a general understanding of what is happening in America and with North Korea.  Unfortunately, that is not a large amount of Americans, as it is a known fact that the younger generation, people age 30 and under are oblivious to what is happening in America, let alone know what is going on in other countries.  A brief summary is, Kim Jong-Un made an offer to South Korea that appears to be too good to be true, which is to suspend nuclear and missile test and that "the routine joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue."  As of now, the Trump White House is claiming that they are the reason for Kim taking a different approach.  While there are no facts behind this it is certainly possible that "faced with an American president who does not hesitate to talk about the "annihilation" of North Korea" that it allowed Kim Jong-Un to soften his disposition of what he thinks the best course of action this is.  While this seems amazing, it seems too soon for optimistic perspectives.
    The article states that there are two options that can happen and in the end, both options look equally bad.  I believe that they are right in thinking that it might be the option B, that it is a trap to trick Trump.  North Korea knowing that we have a president who has no professional mannerism or filter could very easily cause damage not only his want for "peace" but could also damage our relations with Japan, China, and South Korea.  Is this a trap to hurt America and cause us to be abandoned by our allies?  I feel that this article would be best if they discussed what our allies thought of North Koreas want for "peace" and if they feel that they can be trusted. 
           I encourage all of you to read this article to become knowledgeable of what is happening in America and with North Korea. To read the article click the following link:It Only Takes One Trump Tweet To Fall Into North Korea's Trap
   

    On February 23, 2018, Dallas Morning News wrote an article called, "It's going to have to get uncomfortable."  This article is about how we need to make ourselves uncomfortable if we ever plan on fixing our gun hysteria.  We as Americans have an "inability to work towards solutions and it is quite literally killing us."   The article starts by giving you a surprising and sadly hard to believe the fact that, "gun violence is an appalling part of American culture that claims 92 lives, on average, every day."  To many, this is hard to believe because we as Americans have become numb to gun violence in our streets and schools.  However, they then let Texas know that they are very much part of this statistic, seeing as in November there was a mass shooting that killed 26 people.     

      I believe that this article is written for the older generation and the younger generation but to try and target them at different points.  One point that they are making is that "there are signs that slow progress is being made."  While I believe that progress is being made, I don't believe it's the progress they are trying to make it seem.  "While politicians and the public are having the first real conversation on gun violence," these conversations aren't spoken about.  The government is doing what they always do and making it appear that they are talking about an important change, however, we see no changes and unfortunately, the "slow change" that is being made is too slow, and we will have multiple mass shootings before they fix it.  

     What I believe the writer of this editorial, Dom DiFurio, does have right is that in order to change we as politicians, Americans, voters must be ready to talk about the things that make us uncomfortable.  I agree because if we allow ourselves to become comfortable and don't look at the things that make us look at the situation from a different angle we will allow ourselves to filter out the change that could be beneficial as well.  I also agree that "it is both sides that are going to have to withstand some level of discomfort."

I strongly recommend reading this editorial and allow yourself to become uncomfortable and push the government to make the changes.  To read the article click the following link: It's going to have to get uncomfortable  

Coastal Oil Drilling

In January of 2018 Trumps administration put forward plans for offshore drilling. The Washington Post has an article in detail of Trumps administration proposal to permit oil drilling along the majority of the U.S coastal waters, the east coast, west coast, gulf of mexico, and even protected areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic. Although an opportunity for oil and gas industries, many oppose these plans due to environmental dangers, preservation of natural resources, and the potential catastrophes. One of the worst disasters was the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Subsequently, Trump proposed to sale 77 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico alone to industries wanting federal oil. This is a plan that could cause much more harm than good, and will require a lot of push back to prevent this from passing. I find it vital that our society makes themselves aware of all of the issues we are facing. It is difficult to notice some of the things taking place in our country at this time due to the substantial number of crisis' we are facing. This particular issue appears small in comparison to some other issues, but is just as vital to prevent. Societies' health and safety, our environments health and safety, and the next generation is relying on us to make significant changes.

Hello fellow classmates.