Okay so, a lot of the kids around our age have absolutely NO IDEA about anything important that has happened this century, I don’t either sometimes. So I did my best job to try to understand and explain to myself what’s happened this century so far so before I start blogging about current recent events, we can cover prior recent events. Keep in mind that this will be more fact than opinion. Let’s just start in order…
2001: 9/11:
Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked 4 commercial airliners and crashed 3 of them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States on September 11, around 3,000 people died. The United States then declared ‘war on terrorism’. Let me break this down a little more than the others, mainly because it’s a sensitive topic with many different discussions to it. Al-Qaeda means the base in (I guess?) Arabic. My opinion on them is they are NOT a religious group. I respect all peaceful religions, but I do not think that they are a religion. They are a large group of people who hate the way we live and all of our freedom. If you actually read the holy book of Islam, you’ll learn that nowhere in there does it promote violence against people just because of our different customs. These people leading Al-Qaeda are just hateful people who are jealous of the wealth and freedom of the US, so they decided to be martyrs and show the world that the United States can bleed. They hijacked 4 planes and 2 went through the twin towers and the other damaged part of the pentagon. Fortunately, the bravest people I’ve ever known managed to take back control of that fourth plane and plummeted back to earth, sparing the white house from destruction. Sadly, everyone aboard died. Between the towers collapsing, pentagon and all the passengers on the planes over 3,000 people died. To put the amount of death in perspective, Since 6/29/04 only 3,565 people have died in the Iraq war, that’s basically taking at least 84% of all combat deaths in Iraq since 2004 (six years!) and condensing them into about half a day. President Bush’s response was to then declare a war on terrorism. This was the right decision because if we would’ve let them get away with it, they would’ve had the guts to try it again. As of 2010 Al-Qaeda has been considerable reduced in size and demoralized, but not effectively eradicated. You can pin that one on lack of international cooperation and poor people skills by the US military.
2001: Afghanistan Invasion:
US and NATO coalition forces invaded Afghanistan to A. Take down the Taliban government that was supporting a safe-haven for Al-Qaeda forces. B. Support a free democracy to be built up in the country. C. Hunt for the leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden. This action IS justified. Do not blame Bush for wanting to go after the ‘bad guys’ and trying to keep our country secure. Do blame him for the lack of communication and lack of strategy on the invasion that lead us to such a high rate of deaths. This war is still going on, but is now more of establishing a legit government and safe country more than anything, even if there’s still some combat going on.
2003: Iraq Invasion:
A group of nations send forces to topple Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq. They succeeded in this and he was executed in late 2006. So we should be gone right? Wrong. If history has taught anyone anything, it’s that after a government is overthrown or something like that happens you can’t just cut and run. That often makes things worse. It’s like tearing down a house to build a new one. You can’t just stop after you tear it down, that was the easy part. You have to stay and rebuild it. That all makes sense; at least I hope it does to you. The part that doesn’t make sense is WHY we got there in the first place. This is one of my weaker areas, mainly because I was 8 when it started. What I’ve been able to deduct from all of this is the governments reasons were that Saddam Hussein was providing yet another safe-haven for terrorists. This was true. It was also said that Iraq was to have weapons of mass destruction (which aren’t necessarily nuclear weapons), but I don’t remember anything actually saying that we found any though… Did we go Iraq because of oil? Yes and no. It was kind of like going to the mall for … lunch then finding 50 bucks to buy stuff… except you didn’t know there was 50 dollars there before. That was a pretty bad analogy… ANYWAYS! It’s pretty obvious they had oil. I think one of the main points of the war was to gain access to the oil, but it was only ONE of the reasons. Honestly, I would’ve have thought about doing the same thing. Oil is a valued resource in this world and although it’s wrong to go to war for it, there’s really no going back now.
2004: Asian Tsunami:
The tsunami in Asia killed over 230,000 people. That’s a lot! But let’s back up. A tsunami is basically a massive tidal wave that’s really hard to tell if it’s coming, and if it is when and where. Most are caused by earthquakes underwater, to oversimplify it. These people had a little over a minute or two to prepare for this giant tidal wave. They had to make it miles inland to be safe, very few did. Be honest, when this happened did you even give it a second thought? Or did you change the channel as soon as your parents were done crying about it? Exactly. The reality of it is all that destruction is real. It’s like wiping an entire city off the map. The US sent aid, but what did we really do besides that? Imagine how differently it would’ve been if the tidal wave had occurred here. I’m very critical of the way the government treated this situation. We simply sent over some money and didn’t give them a second thought.
2004: Facebook, cell phones, and the information revolution:
Facebook was launched in 2004, but didn’t become open to the public until September 11, 2006. I don’t know what or even if there was a connection to the date, doubt it. Facebook has evolved over the years and has become one of the top ten most visited sites in the entire world. EVERYONE has a Facebook now. Even me! (Don’t try to add me). The social networking site has literally completely changed the way we handle our lives, our problems in them, and how we communicate with other people. It’s brought shy kids to make friends, people who were written off to become understood, and people who were homosexual to be brought out of the closet (don’t be offended it’s just an example), and many other things. Not that there aren’t downsides to this too. Cyber-Bullying emerged from social networking, it may not be a problem for you or your friends, but it’s a problem. Although… I don’t really understand why people like commit suicide over a jerk posting on their wall. How hard is it to unfriend someone? The information revolution started back when the internet became popular, so you could argue that it started before 2004, but since this isn’t your blog I really don’t care. The information revolution is basically the coming of age for the internet (which is still happening). I feel like teens in between the ages of 13 and 18 really are growing up in sync with the internet. At least that’s how I feel. So naturally kids from that age group will be more involved in it. Feel free to prove me wrong or contradict anything I say on here, by the way. I WANT you to comment and I WANT some arguments to happen. The information revolution gave us the ability to ask a friend the stupidest and most complex questions on earth and within twenty seconds have an answer. For example, I googled ‘How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?’ The answer? 700 lbs. worth. How accurate is that answer? Not very. But I still think it’s interesting that I can Google that and 20 seconds later come up with 700 pounds. And of course… Cell phones. Cell phones are another way that’s changed how teens talk and interact with other people. All I’m going to say about this is it has gotten a bad rap and schools need to loosen up on it and parents need to stop getting so mad when we send them texts. At my school if you’re caught with it anywhere and anytime during school hours it’s taken up and you have to pay money to get it back. It’s annoying.
2005: Hurricane Katrina:
Hurricane Katrina was pretty much on of the most devastating events in the history of this country as far as disasters. Literally most of the city was underwater. Not underwater like in the cartoons though; this water was mixed in with pesticides, oil, feces, along with many other things. Not exactly sterile. People are still without a home there. Although, this isn’t AS bad as it seems. Yes, FEMA did a terrible job responding, No it wasn’t directly bush’ fault, even though it was partially his fault for appointing idiots… But if you blame him for everything, you’re a moron who can’t think for yourself and just let the media and your parents tell you what to think. People are still living in FEMA trailers there, but a large portion of these people were homeless prior to the disaster and just aren’t telling. Smart, but still… On the bright side, the majority has been rebuilt and the Saints won the superbowl so it’s all good.
2006: North Korea detonates its first nuclear device:
Okay, North Korea is NOT our friend. I’d rather set foot on the sun than North Korea, there’s a better chance of getting away alive on the sun (not really). They hate us and the fact that we support South Korea. Their leader is insane (no offense Mr. Kim Jung or whatever your name is). If he ever gets anything above South Korea, Japan, or the US, he will make sure to use it and cause as much chaos as possible. Bush literally labeled North Korea, Iraq (not anymore), and Iran (well that was stupid) the axis of evil. The North Korean government against the American way of life. The nuclear bomb tested there wasn’t nearly as powerful as even the ones we had back in the 50’s but still it’s a nuke people. Radiation poisoning, a nuclear winter, and an entire city wiped out. It just wouldn’t be a good thing.
2009: Barack Obama becomes America’s first ever African-American President (I’ll be the first ever president to blog about becoming president lol)
This was a very big day for everyone in the US. People say this is the day that prejudice died in America. I don’t believe that, the day I stop getting called a cracker and people stop making jokes about Hispanics and yard work is the day prejudice dies. I have a feeling that’ll be awhile away though. It had only been 147 years since the slaves were freed and now we have an African-American president. No matter what you say about his actual presidency, you have to admit he’s a very influential politician and deserves recognition. He’s messed up some, but not as much as people say he has. Like bush, give the guy some credit. Nonetheless, it’s a historic achievement and he faced great adversity and came through, so I guess kudos to the guy running the nation?
That’s all I have to say for today… Feel free to comment on anything or everything. I would love the chance to get some feedback. If I suck, tell me so I can leave. If I’m great, tell me so I can write more. Either way you just tell me what you think!
