...Running head: THE IRAQI WAR: WAS IT THE RIGHT THING TO DO? The Iraqi War: Was it the Right Thing to Do? XXXXXX University Abstract The invasion of Iraq was unconstitutional, had no real justification for happening and has severely damaged relations with our allies. Most importantly, Saddam Hussein was considered a threat and it was believed that he had weapons of mass destruction, would take on the U.S in an instant and was accused of having ties to the events of September 11, 2006 and the Al-Quaeda terrorist network. None of this could be proved and it appears as if it were all just convenient statements made by the administration to find a way to make it a justifiable cause. The Iraqi War: Was it the Right Thing to Do? The invasion was unconstitutional, against international law, violated the Christian doctrine of "just war" and has damaged U.S. relations with its allies. It has wreaked havoc in the Muslim world, where there's plenty of havoc already, and most importantly, it has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. Frankly, it’s surprising it hasn’t resulted in dropping a nuclear bomb on Baghdad. Claims made prewar regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have all proved to be wrong; the number of terrorists in Iraq has increased rather than decreased and the abuse inflicted on Iraqi detainees contradicts the most basic values the Administration claimed it would bring to Iraq (Savoy, 2004). President Bush’s...
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...TERRORISM, WAR, PEACE AND HUMAN RIGHTS FACULTY GUIDEBAC 445 FONTBONNE UNIVERSITY OPTIONS BACHELOR OF ARTS IN CONTEMPORARY STUDIES COURSE DESCRIPTION This course will explore ethical, theoretical, and practical questions relating to terrorism, the engagement of war, cultural and ethnic conflicts. This course will explore why we wage war, the development of terrorism and its impact on societies, society’s quest for peace and the methods attempted to achieve peace. This course will also explore the concept of human rights and how terrorism and war impact these rights. © Copyright Fontbonne University, St. Louis, MO, January 2007. COURSE OVERVIEW TOPICS • Historic and philosophical positions on war • Contemporary moral foundations on war • Human rights • Terrorism • Humanitarian intervention and preemptive war • Religious positions on war • Toward a theory of just peace COURSE OVERVIEW INTRODUCTORY NOTES TO FACULTY The subjects of war, peace, terrorism and human rights are daily fare in the media. While people form strong opinions on these matters and tend to regard them as right or wrong, many do not have the skills to analyze and clearly articulate a rationale for their positions. The purpose of this course is thus twofold: to equip students with the ethical theories needed to make a judgment...
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...Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values,reason, mind, and language Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. In more casual speech, by extension, "philosophy" can refer to "the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group". The word "philosophy" comes from the Ancient Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom". The introduction of the terms "philosopher" and "philosophy" has been ascribed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras. The Main Branches of Philosophy are divided as to the nature of the questions asked in each area. The integrity of these divisions cannot be rigidly maintained, for one area overlaps into the others. A. Axiology: the study of value; the investigation of its nature, criteria, and metaphysical status. More often than not, the term "value theory" is used instead of "axiology" in contemporary discussions even though the term “theory of value” is used with respect to the value or price of goods and services in economics. Axiology is usually divided into two main parts. Ethics: the study of values in human behavior or the study of moral problems: e.g., (1) the rightness and wrongness of actions, (2) the kinds of things which are good or desirable, and (3) whether actions are blameworthy or praiseworthy. ...
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...Going To War Com/156 Going To War In today’s world there are many wars and rumors of wars. No matter where we turn we are hearing about one conflict or another. Often it make one wonder has there ever been peace in the world. Looking back on history our world has constantly moved from one war to the next. Trying to understand why it is that mankind feels the need to fight one another is not simple to answer. Many reasons have been given as to why war are started everything from religion, expansionism, ethnic cleansing and even in the name of peace itself. No matter what the reason is that people claim to be fighting for when you get down to the basic of it all. In the end people go to war for power and control, even when the purpose or perception to do so suggests otherwise. To better understand the reason wars are started we need first talk about why people go to war. Matthew O. Jackson and Massimo Morelli wrote (when researching for the book “The Handbook on the Political Economy of War.”) a list of the reason why people go to war. They included the following: religion, revenge, ethnic cleansing and other ideological mass killings, asymmetric information, bargaining failures, first strike advantages and preemptive war. (2009, The Reasons for Wars – an Updated Survey). As complete as this list was I found that often the reason for war was not simply one of the above topics. Often those declaring the wars would use multiple reasons as for the need. This often...
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...strategy: 1. When planning for the future, the managers must account for entry. 2. Managers should expect most new ventures to fail quickly. 3. Managers should know the entry and exit conditions of their industry. Entry and Exit Decisions: Basic Concepts The entrant must sink some capital that cannot be fully recovered upon exit – it is this element of risk that makes the entry decision difficult. The entrant hopes that postentry profits exceed the sunk entry costs. There are many potential sunk costs to enter the market such as specialized capital equipment to government licenses. The potential entrant may use many different types of information about incumbents, including pricing practices, costs and capacity to assess why postentry competition may be like. Barriers to Entry Structural entry barriers exists when the incumbent has natural cost of marketing advantages, or when the incumbent benefits from favorable regulations. Strategic entry barriers result when the incumbent takes aggressive actions to deter entry. Bain’s Typology of Entry Conditions * Blockaded Entry Entry is blockaded if structural barriers are so high that the incumbent need do nothing to deter entry. For example, production may require large fixed investments relative to the size of the market (high sunk entry costs), or the entrant may sell an undifferentiated product for which it cannot raise price above marginal cost (low postentry profitability). * Accomodated Entry...
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...together, like the concept of ying and yang; one cannot exist without the other, they form a balance. According to team member Erika Alati, when using the word values, you must think of the subjects that a person views as important to his or her life. For example, a person with strong familial values may put family before other facets of life. A person’s morals refer to what is internally viewed as right or wrong. Morals are almost like personal traits; they are inborn into an individual’s character. As a person is growing older, they are exposed to many different ideas. Using this input of information, a person forms different beliefs. One of the most common examples refers to religious beliefs, for example Christianity. Team member Kelly O’Brien believes that a moral, a value and a belief are all uniquely correlated. There are some distinct differences, but all combine to determine the good or evil nature of an individual. A moral is an internal sense of what we believe to be right and wrong. Values are the principles by which we construct decisions about right and wrong; while prioritizing the importance of the value(s). Morals encompass more about good and bad leading to a stronger contradictory judgment, such as being immoral. A belief, however, is a more incendiary device. Satre (1956/2003) stated “we are always ready to take refuge in a belief in determinism if this freedom weighs upon us or if we need an excuse.” (p. 78-79). A belief is a conception of a thought...
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...TYPES OF MARKETING STRATEGIES MARKET LEADER STRATEGIES 1. Expand total market 2. Defend market share 3. Expand market share MARKET CHALLENGER STRATEGIES 1. Define strategic objective and opponents 2. Choosing an attack strategy MARKET FOLLOWER STRATEGIES MARKET NICHE STRATEGIES ================ A. 1. MARKET LEADER STRATEGIES EXPAND TOTAL MARKET • New Users E.g.: perfume:--> non-users (mkt-penetration strat) --> men (new market strat) --> other countries (geo-expan strat) E.g.: J&J Baby shampoo: birthrate declining --> ads target adults --> leading brand • New uses Cereals: as snacks --> increase frequency of use OJ: “not for breakfast anymore” Du Pont nylon: parachute-->pantyhose-->blouses & shirts --> auto tires -->seat belts --> carpeting Arm & Hammer: baking--> fridge deodorant --> quell kitchen grease --> carpet/pet deodorant --> bath tub relaxant --> toothpaste --> ???? • More usage: Michelin: want French to drive more --> rate restaurants (best in south --Provence & Riviera) --> publish guidebooks with maps and sights along the way 2. DEFEND MARKET SHARE • decide where to defend • continuous innovation along Mktg Mix Position defense: - purely defensive not enough --> must take offensive counter-measure Eg: Coke --> multi segments of cola mkt --> enter wine market --> acquire fruit drink companies --> desalination equipment --> plastics Flanking defense: - guarding territory not enough - create outposts/flanks: --> protect weak front --> invasion base for counter-attack...
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...If you find yourself facing a price war, you'll need to understand how it started in order to respond effectively. Often the best counterattack does not. involve a retaliatory price How by Akshay R. Rao, Mark E. Bergen, and War ^ 1 I 1^ f Scott Davis N THE BATTLE TO CAPTURE THE CUSTOMER, companies use a wide range of tactics to ward off competitors. Increasingly, price is the weapon of choice - and frequently the skirmishing degenerates into a price war. Creating low-price appeal is often the goal, hut the result of one retaliatory price slashing after another is often a precipitous decline in industry profits. Look at the airline price wars of r992. When American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and other U.S. carriers went toe-to-toe in matching and exceeding one another's reduced fares, the result was record volumes of air travel-and record losses. Some estimates suggest that the overall losses suffered hy the industry that year exceed the combined profits for the entire industry from its inception. Price wars can create economically devastating and psychologically dehilitating situations that take an extraordinary toll on an individual, a com- HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW March-April 2000 107 How to Fight a Price War pany, and industry profitability. No matter who wins, the comhatants all seem to end up worse off than before they joined the battle. And yet, price wars are becoming increasingly common and uncommonly ...
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...The notion of semiautonomous machines battling our wars for us, to some extent, still seems like something out of Star Wars. Imagine how advantageous it would be to have legions of C3P0’s with laser rifles and R2D2’s that shoot laser guided rockets. Over the past several decades innovations in military technology have changed the course of military tactics and warfare itself. Drones have transcended themselves from the pages of science-fiction to the articles of science-fact, thus our need to utilize them in battle has grown exponentially. With their inception comes the debate of whether or not to mass produce smaller models or produce smaller numbers of larger models has only begun (Springer 39). The fact that droids can emulate human cognition and process vast amounts of information pertaining to given situations make the desire to implement them into war all that more tempting. “The inherent advantages of drones -- most of all, not placing pilots or ground forces at risk of being killed or captured -- have lowered the threshold for the use of force” (Zenko,”The Next Drone Wars”). Nothing could have been more truthful, it also brings up several factors concerning the proliferation of Drones, or more specifically UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and the like. Has lowering the threshold for the use of force had a positive impact on international relations or has it hurt our means towards diplomatic resolutions? The ramifications for such a powerful addition to a nation’s arsenal...
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...Prussia’s War against Germany, 1866 On 1 August 1864, King Christian of Denmark ceded all rights to the twin duchies of Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia and Austria. They passed under a joint Austro-Prussian military occupation, pending a formal decision concerning their future by the German Confederation. All of this was formalized with the 30 October 1864 Treaty of Vienna and by all appearances it appeared a new day had dawned for Austro-Prussian relations. In the afterglow of a successful war, it seemed like the inauguration of an era of joint cooperation between the two German powers. This is what Austria desperately wanted. Bismarck however had other plans. Bismarck’s objective was to annex both duchies to Prussia and to neutralize Austrian influence in the German states once and for all. In Bismarck’s prophetic words of August 1864, “War was inevitable.” Already in 1863 Bismarck had suggested to the Russians that Prussia might soon launch a massive preemptive strike on the Habsburg Empire exactly as, “Frederick the Great had in 1756.” As per Bismarck’s calculations, the Austrians were at an awful geopolitical disadvantage. The duchies were extremely remote from Austria, over 800 miles away. Vienna was only lukewarm about keeping a military presence in Holstein. The situation on the ground was even more tenuous with the presence of a Prussian military communication and railroad corridor running directly through Holstein to resupply the Prussian garrison in...
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...How to Fight a Price War By Akshay R. Rao, Mark E. Bergen and Scott Davis IN THE BATTLE TO CAPTURE THE CUSTOMER companies use a wide range of tactics to ward off competitors. Increasingly, price is the weapon of choice – and frequently the skirmishing degenerates into a price war. Creating low price appeal is often the goal, but the result of one retaliatory price slashing after another is often a precipitous decline in industry profits. Look at the airline price wars of 1992. When American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and other U.S. carriers went toe-to-toe in matching and exceeding one another’s reduced fares, the result was record volumes of air travel-and record losses. Some estimates suggest that the overall losses suffered by the industry that year exceed the combined profits for the entire industry from its inception. Price wars can create economically devastating and psychologically debilitating situations that take an extraordinary toll on an individual, a company, and industry profitability. No matter who wins, the combatants all seem to end up worse off than before they joined the battle. And yet, price wars are becoming increasingly common and uncommonly fierce. Consider the following two examples: • In July 1999, Sprint announced a nighttime long-distance rate of 5 cents per minute. In August 1999, MCI matched Sprint’s off-peak rate. Later that month, AT & T acknowledged that revenue from its consumer long-distance business was falling,...
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...power he was rapidly developing an environment that would sustain his plans for the Third Reich. He viewed the treatment of Germans after World War I as unnecessarily drastic and used this in his emphatic speeches to convince the German people to stand up against the sanctions imposed on them by the Treaty of Versailles. He viewed the treaty as a continuation of French aggression by diplomatic means through occupation and war indemnity. The ensuing war reparations had effectively crippled the German economy and after Black Tuesday and the collapse of the United States economic system the Germans could no longer rely on loans provided by the US and rapid inflation caused their currency to skyrocket to nearly four billion Reichsmarks for every one US dollar. The German government had been struggling to find a leader and after repeated votes of non-confidence towards the existing system the Nazi party, and it’s radical agenda perpetrated by Adolf Hitler, gained complete control of the German government. He preached that the German people were the rightful race to rule the world and the subsequent military buildup would lead other nations in Europe to begin to fear the coming of another war that could get out of control just as World War I had almost twenty years earlier. To attempt to ensure that a war would not occur with Germany the European powers attempted to negotiate, with the new dictator of Germany, and their policies of appeasement...
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...misleading analogies to understand crisis situations, find it difficult to micromanage events, and are unable to project force effectively. Even when they are successful, it is often in spite of, rather than because of, the resources of the institutionalized presidency at their disposal. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 provides a case study of how John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev almost blundered into a nuclear war through the crisis management approaches of their advisory systems, but then managed to extricate themselves using personal diplomacy and old-fashioned political horsetrading. They did so without revealing to the world how they had defused the crisis, a decision to maintain confidentiality with far reaching consequences for subsequent presidential crisis decision making. The illusion that presidential crisis management can compel an adversary to submit and that a nuclear crisis can be successfully managed left Kennedy's successors with impossible burdens of public expectations. The United States and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war between 22 October, the evening that President Kennedy announced a "quarantine" on Soviet ships carrying weapons...
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...ISRAELI TARGETED KILLINGS Sarah Arrasmith INTL 614 - Assassination October 25, 2014 "Consequently, today's threat is just a real from seven thousand miles away as it is from ten feet away," Michelle Mallette-Piasecki, Albany Law Review, 2013. In 1995, Yahya 'Ayyash, otherwise known as "The Engineer," and an expert terror planner for Hamas, answered his last phone call. The Israelis had laden the phone with explosives and detonated while he was carrying it ( Luft, 2003, 2). In that same year Fathi Shiqaqi, the spearhead of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who had organized several suicide bombings against Israelis, received fatal gunshot wounds by Mossad, the often mythical Israeli Intelligence (Luft, 2003, 2). These were not the first nor last targeted killings performed by the State of Israel yet are signatures of Israel's propensity and tenacity to not fall victim to terror attacks. The history of violence and threats inflicted by terror groups and nations against the state of Israel has lead to Israel's development of tenacious military and intelligence capabilities. Due to its geopolitical disadvantage, Israel must utilize aggressive and resilient tactics against terror groups, state, and non-state actors. Are targeted killings a necessary resort? Are other enforcement and intelligence strategies just as effective? Israel has propagated targeted killings as effective and credits this action with saving more lives of the innocent while reducing terrorist incidents...
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...their competitors. Markets have become too competitive to focus on the consumer alone. COMPETITIVE FORCES Michael Porter has identified five forces that determine the intrinsic long-run attractiveness of a market or market segment: Industry competitors, potential entrants, substitutes, buyers, and suppliers. The threats these forces pose are as follows: 1. Threat of intense segment rivalry- A segment is unattractive if it already contains numerous, strong, or aggressive competitors. It's even more unattractive if it's stable or declining, if plant capacity must be added in large increments, if fixed costs or exit barriers are high, or if competitors have high stakes in staying in the segment. These conditions will lead to frequent price wars, advertising battles, and new-product introductions and will make it expensive to compete. 2. Threat of new entrants -The most attractive segment is one in which entry barriers are high and exit barriers are low." Few new firms can enter the industry, and poorly performing firms can easily exit. When both entry and exit barriers are high, profit potential is high, but firms face more risk because poorer-performing firms...
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