...Justifiable Terrorism in Total Wars Molly Thomson 201311503 Political Science 1000-03 March 18th, 2014 The word ‘terrorism’ instantly makes people shudder; the negative connotations and controversies surrounding terrorism in modern society are enough to spark a discussion of whether it is justifiable or not. In order to determine whether or not terrorism can be justified, a clear definition must be decided upon. Decades before the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001, the definition of the word terrorism was hard to define. Political figures around the globe argued and disagreed on what they thought should have determined the act of terrorism. Now, there are multiple different definitions originating from distinct cultures and societies, suggesting that terrorism is in the eye of the victim. One definition of terrorism is “any violent or criminal act planned for a political or ideological purpose”; while another claims that terrorism is understood to be a direct attack on innocents. Since both of these definitions have important components to them, it can be assumed that both traits are essential to defining terrorism. For the purpose of this paper, the definition of terrorism will be understood as ‘a violent attack on innocents for the purpose of political change’. It can be hard for most people to understand the act of injuring and/or killing hundreds, or maybe even tens of thousands of people, as justifiable. However, if the innocents are...
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...The Bombing of Dresden was an attack on Dresden, Germany, which took place in latter part of World War II. Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., is a novel about the author’s personal experience in World War II. The novel is about a prisoner of war who survives and witnesses the Allied Forces’ firebombing of Dresden. Slaughterhouse Five is a work of literary fiction mixed with elements of sci-fi, history, and also contains biographical context. Most people believe that they understand war, and what the soldiers go through. What Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is trying to tell his readers in a calm, emotionless manner, informing us that we do not know anything about the horrors of war, and how meaningless it is. Vonnegut brings us the traditional view on war by giving the readers the preview into the mind of a prisoner of war who survived the war. This novel is a literary classic which will be just as meaningful and educational during any period of time. Slaughterhouse Five is an educational piece about the psychological, historical, and biographical aspects of war and the effect of war on soldiers who have witnessed and survived it. When reading this novel, the feeling one would get is of fear and sympathy. Kurt Vonnegut’s novel is an all-time great cult classic with elements of time travel. “Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time” (Chapter 2). The novel’s protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, travels through periods of his life, which he is not able to decide what period he lands in. Therefore...
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...Paul Mason EN-101 Novemeber 21st, 2012 Destruction of Dresden and Hiroshima In World War II, the American and British allies often used the method of bombing other countries in order to advance; the usage of incendiary bombs, and even atomic bombs, were common occurrences. However, two main bombings that resulted in utter despair and the highest death counts were in Dresden, a city in Germany, and Hiroshima, a city in Japan. While tactics such as bombing counted to most people as acceptable actions within war, the motivation behind these particular attacks may not have been strong enough to account for the deaths of thousands, and it is a controversy still prevalent today. Kurt Vonnegut, an author held prisoner of war in Dresden, discusses his experience and knowledge gained from the Dresden firestorm in his novel Slaughterhouse Five, which alludes to the point that all bombings such as these, are unnecessary. Late at night on February 13, 1945, the city of Dresden experienced a horrific massacre that would result in the death of the inhabitants of almost the entire city, done by the Royal and American air forces. Due to what the Americans and British refer to as, “negative intelligence,” at that time, to them Dresden was known to be “an important industrial area, producing electric motors, precision instruments, chemicals, and munitions,” (Irving, 69). It was supposedly a center for communication and transportation, containing German postal and telegraph systems...
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... The Blood of Dresden In Kurt Vonnegut's Essay "The Blood of Dresden" there are multiple times where, even though he was a prisoner of war, he could see the beauty of the city he was captured in. He was able to come to love the city of Dresden and "saw the blessed wonder of her past and the rich promise of her future." He goes of to tell us how it was bombed, how this beautiful city was reduced to crushed stone and embers by bombs dropped wide of stated objectives. That we lost generations of German children whether they were future enemies or not, cannot be justified. That he saw this war as "obscene brutality." He saw this first hand because Vonnegut was one of the many men who pulled out the dead of Dresden out of the shambles of rubble. He was the one who brought them to a funeral pyre, a technique that was long abandoned. The Americans did indeed learnt how to "kick a man below the belt and make him scream" Vonnegut saw that the bombing of Dresden was an awful event, even him being a POW. He said that it was once a tourists paradise because it was one of the world's most lovely city. He goes on to paint this image of Dresden as pleasant, honest, and intelligent civilisa-tion. In the shadow of the Hitler regime it flourished with countless unwarlike countenance. Being a POW you'd expect him to have some resentment towards the city, but he knew this city and people did not deserve the destruction it succumbed to by the saturation bombings. The implications of...
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...is a deterrent of war. War is appalling and uneasy. Kurt Vonnegut, novelist and veteran, was captured at the Battle of the Bulge during World War II and was a Prison of War (POW) during the famous bombing that lead to a firestorm that wiped out the city of Dresden, Germany. That dreadful experience of war would forever intrude on his mind for the rest of his life. In 1955 the Vietnam war began, the United States became involved and the American people were not supportive. This war would lasted until 1975 and it was detrimental in many ways. In 1968, the Viet Cong initiated a massive...
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...These elements are the structural equivalents of the novel’s overall message that each answer which man discovers in his painful search for meaning only leads to another question and that consequently not even an eyewitness account of the Dresden massacre can provide this historical event with any objective meaning, but have to be content with a resigned “So it goes”. According to my point of view quoting historical events and repeating them within Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut managed to explain the readers how human have never ceased to repeat the same cruelties from the medieval Crusades through the destruction of Dresden to the war in Vietnam. At all times, wars have cruelly deprived children of their childhood, destroyed priceless cultural...
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...In “Slaughterhouse Five”, Vonnegut writes a whole novel based on World War Two and the bombing of Dresden. Billy Pilgrim, the main character has been drafted into the army during World War two, where he trains to be a chaplain’s assistant, which causes him to be disliked by many of his peers. Billy is thrown into the Battle of the Bulge where he is immediately taken prisoner by the Germans, put into a slaughterhouse prison and assigned to work for the city of Dresden. Due to the war Billy was diagnosed with PTSD and has become unstuck in time. He states that he has seen his birth and death many times, hence pays random visits to events in between. Billy doesn’t see much freedom in his life, which is why he has no shame in believing that there is no such thing as free will. According to Vonnegut there are no heroes or villains, if there were to be any we would be judging people by their actions and intentions. There is one character that comes close to being a hero, Edgar Derby who stands up to an American Nazi but in this novel he isn’t known for being a “hero”. Billy believes that aliens known as the Tralfamadorians have kidnapped him and have taken him to their planet Tralfamadore. The Tralfamadorians teach Billy their perspective of life and that if someone dies they...
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...between the lines to gather the full understanding of Vonnegut’s expressions, or rather inexpression of violence of war. Vonnegut’s writing style directly correlates to the notions that violence cannot be accurately represented. Ultimately, this suggests that Slaughterhouse Five’s larger theme at work is that the violence of war is a trauma that is utterly unrepresentable. In majority of Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim’s explanations are done in a matter-of-fact way. Whether this be about time travel, his family’s tragedies, or about the war itself, his method of conveying that information typically remained consistent. Initially, one may dismiss concern and may be attribute it to Billy never having been truly affected by the violence of Dresden. Upon reflection, however, it is clear that Billy’s poor portrayal of that violence is apparent due to his trauma. With trauma comes the inability to communicate one’s experience of that trauma, or the manner in which others are inept in their capacity to comprehend it. Billy demonstrates his inability to properly illustrate and communicate his trauma of the war when, “Unexpectedly, Billy Pilgrim found himself upset by the song and the occasion…as the quartet made slow, agonized experiments with chords—chords intentionally sour, sourer still, unbearable sour, and then a chord that was suffocatingly sweet, and them some sour ones again.. Billy had powerful psychosomatic responses to the changing chords. His mouth filled with the taste of...
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...In Vonnegut’s anti-war book, Slaughterhouse-Five, he has a character named Billy Pilgrim, who is a drafted American soldier during World War II. He goes through different parts of his life by time traveling and encounters with aliens along the way. The story revolves around the bombing of Dresden and how Billy interprets life as the way he sees it. From end to end in the book, Vonnegut uses plentiful of rhetorical techniques such as: metaphors, syntax, and diction to emphasize to the readers that the British are comically more “realistic” for war than the American POWs— in all actuality the Americans are mostly depicted the way it is in reality. The way Vonnegut intertwines metaphors, syntax, and diction to reiterate that the American POWs are not as well “prepared”, although the British are. Vonnegut uses syntax as he writes, “The Englishmen had hoarded these so cunningly that now, as the war was ending, they had three tons of sugar, one ton of coffee, eleven hundred pounds of chocolate, seven hundred pounds of tobacco…” He contrasts the British explicitly with the detailed list that they are rich of food and resources because the British have to share with the broke down Americans....
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...utilize Dr. Ross Pigeau and Carol McCann’s model to evaluate the dimensions relating to Harris’ Competency, Authority and Responsibility (CAR) and to assess the overall balance and effectiveness of Harris’ command. The CAR model was deemed most suitable to dissect pertinent aspects of this complex and controversial commander, allowing for the necessary depth of analysis into his abilities, responsibilities, beliefs, actions and reactions over a specific timeframe. This paper will illustrate that Harris, although highly skilled in many areas and having demonstrated impressive successes at the helm of Bomber Command, had a singular and seemingly intractable approach to war – to obliterate Germany’s war production capacity by area bombing its cities. This inflexible approach inhibited his ability to see the bigger picture with any measure of objectivity and was the Achilles Heel of his leadership, limiting his command capability and resulting in an abuse of his authority -- and ultimately, having a detrimental effect on the Allied offensive. His unshakeable faith became a measure of “obstinacy and dogmatism . . . [that] prevent Harris from being called a truly great...
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...Throughout the past couple decades, society has bared witness to a rise in romanticized and glorified war stories depicted in film and literature. However, this image of war as an honorable and worthwhile endeavor has always been present in human history up until the 1960’s. Written in 1969, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-five is an absurd satirical novel inspired by the author’s experiences in World War II that follows protagonist Billy Pilgrim through all phases of his life as he has become unstuck in time. On the other hand, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb directed by Stanley Kubrick is a political dark humor film released around the same time, only five years prior, that satirizes the madness and terrifying...
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...Was the Bombing of Dresden and Hamburg Necessary? Roberta Messman American Public University History 102 Marc Wenner Was the Bombing of Dresden and Hamburg Necessary? The United States joined World War II on the side of the Allies. It was yet another large destructive war in Europe, and the Allies needed assistance in defeating Germany quickly. The Soviet Union was successful in pushing Germany westward in this battle. As Germany got closer to other fronts, the Allies knew that something needed to be done to aid the Soviet Union in stopping them. The United States and Great Britain felt the air bombings on the German cities of Dresden and Hamburg were the way to cripple Germany. The fire bombs caused much damage to the cities and many lives were lost; however it did put an end to the war sooner and a victory for the Allies. (Ross, 2003) These cities of Dresden and Hamburg had most of Germany’s needed resources and materials needed for their military were made and produced. Some deemed these bombings to be unnecessary and immoral for killing many innocent people. However is also viewed as a necessary part of the war and some had to die to prevent even more deaths. Because of how many lives were lost due to these bombings it is hard to imagine, but it was an action of war that was crucial to take down Germany. The bombings were destructive but extremely successful by taking down these cities stopping them from producing need supplies for the war. The bombings did put the war...
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...1945. The British bombers dropped 2,260 tons of high explosives firebomb on the city of Dresden, creating a firestorm that consumed most of the inner city (Johannes and Andreas 582). The Americans also flew two daylight attacks, on February 14 and 15 and dropped almost 3,000 tons of bombs (Johannes and Andrea 586). The aftermath of this bombing lead to the destruction of several thousand of buildings, which included catholic churches, the city’s oldest town and eastern suburbs were all destroyed (Johannes and Andrea 588). But aside from the severe destruction of the city, the 130,000 so life which were lost in 24 hours brought to question the morality of massive...
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...To what extent can the bombing of Dresden (1945) be perceived as a war crime according to international law today? The analysis that is set out hereafter presents the case that there is a strong argument that the Dresden bombing CAN be perceived as a war crime. There have always been elements of controversy attached to it for a few important reasons with the main issue of concern being why this city was chosen as a target after five years of war. Some of the reasons proffered are as follows: a) The city was part of Nazi Germany and therefore could be legitimately attacked in the ordinary scheme of things. The Allied forces were after all at war with Nazi Germany b) There was the belief that the city was being used under the cover of...
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...and John Yossarian, are differently characterized, but their objective as soldier fighting for the United States in World War II is the same. They are located in abundantly different regions, Billy in Dresden, Germany, while Yossarian finds himself in the Italian island of Pianosa. To ironically display the theme of anti-war, Slaughterhouse-5 accurately represents a marking event in world history taken from actual experiences while Catch-22 presents a real location but with fictitious events. Slaughterhouse-5’s story is mainly focused around Billy’s experience during his time spent in Dresden as a prisoner of the Germans. Dresden is known for its cultural and artistic splendor, with churches (such as the Frauenkirche), concert halls and gardens which contribute to its fame. In the novel, the American soldiers were transported to the city by foot and later by train to finally reach Schlachthof-fünf, German for slaughterhouse five. The bombing is foreshadowed many times before its actual execution in the novel, and at one point even directly contradicted by an Englishman before the departure: “You needn't worry about bombs, by the way. Dresden is an open city. It is undefended, and contains no war industries or troop concentrations of any importance” (Kurt Vonnegut 186). The bombing took place in February of 1945 when American allies dropped about four-thousand tons of explosives on the city’s center, forming a fierce fire storm that massacred thousands of acres. In the book, the...
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