Assess Whether Religious Experience Demonstrates the Existence of God Essay Example for Free

Assess Whether Religious Experience Demonstrates the Existence of God Essay

The Controversy at No Gun Ri :: Korean War No Gun Ri Essays

The sensitive subject of whether the 7th Calvary killed innocent men, women, and children at No Gun Ri arose years after the end of the Korean War. Some sources argue that the killings were unprovoked, while others claim that the Communist enemy was mixed within the refugee lines. One source claims the killings numbered over 350 innocent people and others claim it was a mere 35. Although there is a major discrepancy in the number of civilians killed, the fact that innocent men, women, and children were murdered does not disappear. Therefore, whether the casualties were 35 or 350, the United States army engaged in a massacre of innocent Korean refugees. Therefore, the killings at No Gun Ri can not be denied, whether they casualty count is high or low. Some people can not fathom how the United States military could engage in such an action. However â€Å"Experts cite an absence of discipline and experience among the Americans, who had been badly shocked by the North Korean assault,† (Thompson, par. 7) as an explanation of why this could happen. This is not an uncommon theme when speaking of the soldier of the Korean War. Rudy Tomedi cites several examples of people who were never in the infantry being forced to become an infantryman. He uses the example of Bob Roy who states â€Å"Nine months before I’d been in the Military Police. M Company was originally an MP unit. Then one day they came around and said, ‘All right, you’re all in the infantry’† (Tomedi, 3). If this type of assignment was not uncommon during the Korean War, it is highly possible that those at No Gun Ri were just as unprepared to fight as Bob Roy was. If they were unprepared it is also quite possible that the soldiers panicked. General Ridgeway, who rose to be in command of the entire UN forces, claims that the United States’ forces were outnumbered, with low morale, and spread extremely thin. He claims â€Å"Every command post I visited game me the same sense of lost confidence and lack of spirit†¦It was not their doing that had brought them far understrength to this unfortunate country with major shortages in weaponry and insufficient clothing†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Ridgeway, 87). With a military force in such bad shape the possibilities of it acting irrationally is very high.

Lies in Huck Finn Essay

â€Å"That book was written by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There as things which he stretched but mainly he told the truth† (1). These are the first lines and the first lies in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, so from the beginning, the lack of truth is a major theme in the novel. Mark Twain justified the lying in different levels. Some of the lies are vicious and self-serving and these lies were mostly told by the King and Duke while other lies were childish and harmless which was mostly told by Jim. The â€Å"bad† characters in the novel tended to spew out lies on a daily basis. The king and Duke tell lies without pausing and transform lying into an art form. They are automatically dubbed villains for their lies because unlike Huck, they tell their lies for self-gain. They are ruthless men who will do practically anything to get what they want. They make up fraudulent names in order to get special treatment from Huck and Jim and lower them to slaves. The Duke claims he is a descendant of the â€Å"Duke of Bridgewater† (100). When the king hears this, he decides he too would take the same path as the Duke so he can be treated as royalty as well, so he spins his own tale that he is the long lost King of France, â€Å"Dauphin. They lied to escape work and although Jim believes them, Huck just goes along with it so he would not anger them. In addition to this, they also deceive numerous towns with their faux imitation of â€Å"The Royal Nonesuch† for financial gain. Their lies sped past the road of immorality to downright evil when they lied to two girl who recently lost their uncle in order to steal their money and leave the two girls broke and without a house or a family. The king and the Duke lie only for the satisfaction of appeasing their materialistic desires. Although the Duke and King lied for their own greedy satisfaction, Jim lied harmlessly. After Tom and Huck played a prank on him, Jim lies to all the other slaves about how he hat got take from his head and put on a tree branch when he was asleep. He tells them a fabricated story of spirits visiting him and achieves celebrity status among the slaves. He also tells them about his hairball which can supposedly tell the future, although only he can tell what it is saying and the customer must pay Jim first for it to work. Even though his lies are self-serving, unlike the Duke and King’s, they harm no one. Mark Twain painted the art of lying in two different lights in this novel. In one light, it is evil and self-serving and whoever uses it is considered a vile villain, while in the other light, it is deceitful and sly and whoever uses it is considered a child who does not know wrong or right. He proves that there is no black and white: lying is bad or good. Lying can be innocent, and lying can be dangerous; it depends who you are and how you decide to use it.

Khrushchev s Impact On The Soviet Union - 917 Words

1. As one of the leaders of the Soviet Union, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was a canny and careful Communist Party functionary who sought to make his country the military equal of the United States and promote its political influence around the world through the policy of detente. While Nikita Khrushchev another leader of the Soviet Union during the climax of the cold, largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, he instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. At home, he initiated a process of â€Å"de-Stalinization† that made Soviet society less repressive. I think it would have been a good idea to keep Khrushchev in power. Because, although he played major roles in things that could of lead to a global tragedies like the Cuban missile crisis or the berlin wall. Khrushchev was the first of the Soviet leaders who begin the trend of liberalization that ultimately peaked with Gorbachev. He also ended the socialist primitive accumulation that spanned all of Stalin s rule. He also abandoned the concept of class struggle. In actual fact, while â€Å"revisionistically breaking from the industrialization-and-purge era of 1929-1941, he ensured continuity with the immediate post-war era of 1946-1953. In 1966, China’s Communist leader Mao Zedong launched what became known as the Cultural Revolution, in order to reassert his authority over the Chinese government. Believing that current Communist leaders were taking the party, and ChinaShow MoreRelatedKhrushchev s Influence On America1543 Words   |  7 Pagescreated a lasting impact, although certain foreigners molded America during their lives. This particularly applies in the case of Nikita Khrushchev, as despite his status as the leader of another nation, he exerted the greatest influence on America during the time period. 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