Global War on Terror: The Aftermath Continues

When one thinks of war, they think of two sides in a distant or a nearby location fighting against one another. One side is set to be good, while the other is set to be bad. However, in today’s society, the Global War on Terror is far beyond what anyone could ever imagine. Instead of having one group of nations defeat another, as was the case during WWII, today’s Global War on Terror includes a group of nations fighting against Islamic extremists and Islamist terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and the Islamist militant group known as the Taliban.

It all started in 2001, after the September 11 attacks on American soil; President George W. Bush had previously set an ultimatum with the Taliban government in Afghanistan. President Bush had asked the Taliban to turn over Osama bin Laden, who was believed to be the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks. Otherwise, the Taliban would have to face an invasion on Afghani soil. Nevertheless, the Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden, or any al-Qaeda leaders without any solid evidence to link them to the September 11 attacks. However, the United States refused to provide evidence, and on October 7, 2001, the War on Terror had begun in Afghanistan with a US invasion to expulse the Taliban regime.

In March 2003, the United States led another invasion by the Bush administration, to begin the Iraq War. Ever since 1990, Iraq has been on the United States’ watch list for possession of weapons of mass destruction. Before the invasion on Iraq, President Bush’s administration called for the United Nations Security Council to send inspectors to Iraq in search for evidence to support this accusation. The United Nations Security Council resolution, (UNSC Resolution 1441), offered Iraq to comply with the UNSC’s demand, or face a serious consequence. In 2002, while President Bush was visiting a NATO summit, he declared that if Saddam Hussein chose not to disarm, the United States would lead a coalition of those willing to disarm him. A total of 48 countries supported the Bush administration’s “Coalition of the Willing,” which referred to countries that supported the invasion of Iraq. Thus the United States assisted by the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland, invaded Iraq in March 2003. By April 2003, Baghdad fell, as did Saddam Hussein’s government. After months of searching, Saddam Hussein was eventually caught on December 2003, and executed three years later. It wasn’t until December 15, 2011, that the war in the Middle East came to an end.

Even after the death of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, people still question what the result of the Global War on Terror was. In reality, the United States did not gain anything from the war. The governments’ attempts to gain control of Iraq’s oil reserves failed. It spent nearly three trillion US dollars; some even claim that even more was spent. The money was used for sending troops, ammunition, care packages, and rations half way around the world. The US lost nearly 4,500 soldiers, as well as 30,000 wounded in combat. Not only that, but some of the effects on everyday society include the increase of security at airports, bus stations, train stations, and schools. Before the attacks of September 11, people were able to walk up to the departure gates of an airport and greet their friends and family. Now, people have to wait outside a secured area. It appears that terrorism, as well as the fear or terrorism in the past decade has escalated more than anyone ever thought it would ever reach. Reports of car bombings are reported every month in the Middle East, along with many civilian casualties. Not only that, but public shootings have been reported throughout the United States, and the result of continuous terror plots around the world has caused a spread of fear. Within the past decade, the amount of money spent on beefing up security in public places as escalated so high in such a small period of time, no one knows what we are trying to protect anymore. Even with all these advances in improving security at airports, there are still terrorist attacks that occur every year on airplanes. No matter how hard we try, there will never be an end to the global war on terror.

From the diary of a self-searching teenager

I hate winter. It must be because I never fail to feel it all the time deep within, just dwelling there, haunting my inner being and proudly declaring victory after every fight. It’s funny how the more it stays inside the more I grow comfortable with it and just go along with whatever it has to bring. It always brings the same thing - emptiness. I hate winter because it manages to ruin every single summer of mine without even being there. I truly hate it.

The only thing I can recall from the last few hours is whiteness. Endless landscapes of white, where the sky and the earth look so much alike that it seems as if they’d created the perfect state of equilibrium uniting into one. It’s a whole new universe and I am the only black spot that stands out in there. I am the cause of chaos in a land of carefully built order. I see it. And I see the perfection in it. And I know that I’ll never be as perfect. And that terrifies me, it frightens me so much that I start to run. That I start to scream. And just like that I close my eyes and refuse to see. I blindly follow a previously defined path. And so I lose myself along the way. But I am trying to run away of the fear itself so much, that I don’t even realize this crucial detail until later. And later is the point that forces me to stop. Later is the point at which I hit something. Or rather something hits me so strong that the pain causes me to open my eyes. And see clearly into the winter after all that time. As I acknowledge that something’s missing I see dark silhouettes appearing as wolves coming nearby. I close my eyes once again, for if I can’t see them they as well might not be present there at all. And if I kick and hit and run they will be gone in reality as well. But what is reality anyways? What defines it? The world I go into when I close my eyes presents itself as a much better one than this mixed, never-ending place filled with emptiness and darkness and wolves. Why can’t I make my perfect little world beyond closed eyes my reality? Why can’t I live into my fear-free kingdom with everlasting summer, where I never need to buy warm clothes as a protection from winter. Where the wind is not able to blow me off my feet. Where my dreams always come true and I don’t feel as a chaos in a place of order. Where there’s no atrocities that create obstacles and harden life. And where most importantly nothing is perfect. Therefore I make an interesting realization. The power of will is a great one. Maybe I did not close my eyes because of fear and desire of escape. Maybe I closed them simply because that was my will. That was what I wanted to do. So I concentrate. And I open them. All of a sudden I can distinguish the sky. It’s somewhat lighter now. I notice the deep scars that all the struggles have left on my body. But now I also see that what seemed to be wolves were people. Mere people who were merely trying to help me and who I neglected in the state of strong egoism and self-centeredness. And while trying to fix what I managed to break I can sense the pieces of my lost self coming together. Far in the distance there is a spark. A spark of hope. It’s up to me to decide whether I shall follow. I feel power in my hand and wisdom on my mind. Self-realization is yet to be approached.

But all this winter will stay, making it hard to walk. Making it hard to see, but never succeeding into causing me to close my eyes ever again. Still, there’s no doubt I hate it.

WILLPOWER

How many times have you felt as if life is slipping away from your fingertips? How many times have you felt that you are not living the way that you have wanted to live?

Life is a priceless gift, and it would be a great pity if you did not live it to its fullest. So, how does one live life to its fullest?

The fulfillment in one’s life lies in the fulfillment in one’s GOALS and attaining the state of balanced HEALTH. Some may argue that there are other requirements for the fulfillment of one’s life, but I see them as subgroups of these two major requirements. Goals are crucial, since success in one’s goals is success in life. If you want something, set it as a goal, and achieve it. Health, even though we underestimate it, is a key component of fulfillment in life. And the definition of healthy that we prescribe as “not being sick” describes just a component of being truly healthy. Health encompasses physical fitness and psychological equilibrium, as well as lack of malady.

Multiple studies have concluded that two personality traits repeatedly lead to a happy and successful life. The first is intelligence, but, since it is given, and cannot be greatly influenced, we will not dwell upon it. The second is maybe even more important, but, most importantly, it can be increased in amount. This crucial component is WILLPOWER.

We have all heard about it, but do we really understand what stands behind that word? In short, willpower is the control over one’s thoughts, emotions, and impulses. A person that wields that control, can direct himself/herself into behavior that is in accordance with his/her goals, and direct away from behavior or actions that can hurt the realization of his/her goals. A common example is the struggle with facebook. You have a goal of getting into a nice college. To get there you have a smaller goal to get good grades. And they, consequently, depend on the grade that you will get on tomorrow’s test. And today you have a choice: you either study or you squander your time on facebook. Now the part of you with full willpower supply will say no to facebook, but an empty willpower you that you often find yourself to be, indulges in the shallow satisfaction of wallowing on facebook.

How can willpower be increased? How can one become the MASTER OF ONE’S SELF? Even though the road toward a significant increase in willpower is not easy, it can still be achieved.

Set a goal. Fulfill it. Repeat.

That is the essence. You don’t want to wallow for 15 minutes before you get up from bed. Write down: “Tomorrow I’m getting up the moment I open my eyes”. The next day it will eat up a significant deal of your willpower, if you actually do it. You get up, find the paper with the goal, and put a little mark or swish. The day after, it will consume a portion somewhat smaller. Put another mark. Each mark gives you more encouragement and more willpower. Repeat the procedure as long as it becomes a habit. And when that happens, it will require no willpower for you to get up the second you wake up.

I believe this system can be employed to many aspects of life, not just morning rituals. Every success brings more willpower. More willpower leads to greater successes. It’s a “vicious” circle.

In next posts I’ll cover other areas of life that I think lead to its fulfillment, such as fitness and health, as well as some psychological issues that trouble the average person.

Till then, get up the second you wake up, it will help you in many ways!

TVD – The Violent Diaries?

With “Twilight” and the beginning of the new vampire era in mass culture, humans, vampires and usually many other beings are thrown together in a fusion of supernatural world. Yet, in some instances there seems to be more throwing around than in other. Blood, lust and death are of course expected in anything that involves vampires. However, as the death toll in “The Vampire Diaries” nears the one of World War I, I can’t help but wonder whether the PG-13 rating of the show might be a little off.

One might agree that the TV show can be compared with wine; it gets better with time. Not only do the love interests become more complex and compelling, but the action and horror elements become more profound. But, all things come with a price, and for this show the price are the wages of at least five new actors per episode, just for the sake of murdering their characters. Truly, it seems that any new character that appears in an episode is doomed to die. In trying to make the show as different as possible from the infamous and highly criticized “Twilight Saga”, the writers of this epic vampire love story have made certain that every season has at least one big bad wolf (the last one actually being a half-wolf). During the first season, the main problem was getting the main vampire brother and human girl couple, Stefan and Elena, married before Damon, his evil vampire brother, kills the entire population of the town, including the priest. As the second season came and Damon’s thirst for blood lessened, Katherine was brought into the show. Because of her malicious ways, murder becomes the favorite pastime in Mystic Falls. But if you thought that killing a girl in ten seconds by choking her with her own necklace was the worst that this show has to offer, Klaus is there to make you reconsider. Obviously, the producers weren’t satisfied with the quick and painless ways in which people had been killed in the first two seasons, that they brought us two entire new breeds of vampires- rippers and hybrids. Stefan, as the main representative of the first, likes to not only kill his victims, but play with them first. Naturally, most memorable are the two girls that he pulled to pieces after feeding on them, and then later put them back together in a sitting position in front of their TV. Still, because seeing this gruesome picture wasn’t enough to last us a lifetime, the series showed you what should be a completely new form of gore- killing creatures called hybrids. One of the main goals of the protagonists in the latest season is to destroy the entire hybrid breed. Because these are a combination of vampires and werewolves, there are only two extremely horrible ways to kill them, decapitation and removing the heart. The one prop in the entire show that must be used more than the vampire fangs, definitely must be the pumping heart. Throughout the last couple of episodes, I think that this heart has gotten more air time than any one of the main characters. Nevertheless, the show is trying to make amends for its high level of violence. The only underage character in the last season was compelled to leave the town and its supernatural residents behind, because his sister decided that he shouldn’t be in such a vicious world. Needless to say, before his departure, he single-handedly murdered a bunch of vampires and hybrids, the most remarkable being chopping a hybrid’s head off on the front porch with a kitchen knife.

Although the center of the show is the love triangle between a mortal teenage girl and two vampire brothers, it’s what’s happening to the secondary characters that really enthrall the viewers. And while Damon and Stefan are battling for Elena’s heart, the hearts of many other more loveable characters are pulled out of their chest. Hence, I believe that a moment of silence is necessary for Jenna, Vicky, Anna, the Mayor of Mystic Falls, the old guy who had a five-minute-long boring speech, the girl who made Damon cry and needless to say for the girl that ran away from Klaus screaming “Help!” at the top of her lungs.