Black Hawk Down Objective Summary

Scene from Black Hawk Down movie

In parts 7-12 of "Black Hawk Down," by Mark Bowden, Bowden emphasizes the pressure that is put on the remaining soldiers as more and more fall. Some soldiers show continuous courage and bravery, while others begin to think of their way out. Some soldiers are so brave, that they go back into Mogadishu to back up their fellow soldiers. A fatal decision for some, but heroic for all who chose the option. The soldiers are forced to make stressful decisions like these, and find ways to protect their men. Bowden intensifies the situation with detailed, nail biting firefights, and suspenseful life or death decisions. The situation continues to grow dire and dangerous as the novel progresses, with Bowden only making it harder to put down. So far this story has only got more intense after every chapter.

Black Hawk Down Objective Summary

Black hawk Down Movie Poster

In parts 1-6 of Black Hawk Down the author, Mark Bowden switches between many characters such as Eversmann and Garrison. Bowden starts out with the beginning of the mission, when the task force is flying into the city of Mogadishu on the Black Hawk helicopters. Everyone is doing their jobs on the mission, and everything is going well except that a soldier fell from a helicopter. During the mission, the soldiers have to find ways to kill the enemy without harming the civilians the enemy's hide behind. In many cases civilians are killed by accident or on purpose, because they had no choice. Bowden shows the exciting side of war and the ethical choices of war. The mission takes a turn for the worst when a black hawk is shot down. The mission changes for the task force, and what was a routine mission turns into a brutal firefight. It's up to the young, 20 year old rookie soldiers to save the black hawk pilots and get out of Mogadishu alive.

Is War Avoidable?

Topic: War

The Vietnam War was caused by the corrupt Vietnam Government.

EQ: Is war avoidable?

Claim: War is not avoidable.

Reason: In order to keep peace between two countries, those countries must be ready to back each other up, and if they don't this will cause a whole different conflict between the countries which could lead to war.

Survey Response

As of right now, our survey has had 4 responses. Our survey is about the histories of war and opinions about war. Most people were correct about the war history questions. Most people said if threatened you can kill another person. No one thought it was right to kill just because they can.

War Survey

War Survey

Milo Minderbender

Discuss Milo's control over different parts of the world.

Milo helped influence many parts of the world, by starting a buisness and bringing his buisness to them. Milo started out as an egg and fruit salesman who served his fellow soldiers. Milo turned into a buisness tyrant around the world who even saved the economy of a place in Africa. He not only sold food and resources, Milo betrayed his friends and sold secrets to both the germans and the americans. Milo betrayed his friends by telling them to fly, even though he just told the germans to shoot them down. "Milo was not only the Vice-Shah or Oran, as it turned out, but also the Caliph of Baghdad, the Imam of Damascus, and the Sheik of Araby. Milo was the corn god, the rain god and the rice god in backward regions where such crude gods were still worshipped by ignorant and superstitious people, and deep inside the jungles of Africa, he intimated with becoming modesty, large graven images of his mustached face could be found overlooking primitive stone altars red with human blood. Everywhere they touched he was acclaimed with honor, and it was one triumphal ovation after another for him in city after city" (1422). Milo gained so much power, people in Africa were even sacrificing themselves for him. Milo used the war to his advantage, and succeeded in doing what he wanted. He was able to trick everyone he knew for his gain. Milo's last name was Minderbender, which is probably a play on words for mindbender.

Major Major

Discuss the Major Major Major Major's traumatizing childhood, and how it leads to who he is now.

Major Major Major Major is the way he is, because of his childhood. Major Major is a member of Yossarian's unit on Pianosa. He is the rank Major and his first, middle, and last name are Major. This is because of his father's sick sense of humor when Major was named and an error from an IBM machine that caused his rank to be so high. Major's name has caused him many problems in the military and in life. The narrator describes him as a very unimpressive, mediocre guy. “Major Major had been born too late and too mediocre. Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was” (475). Major Major lived a life of mediocrity and blandness. Throughout his whole life he has been questioned and judged. Major was only once close to making friends in his time in the army, and this was ruined when he was promoted to squad commander. Imagine of Major Major's name had been anything but what it is now. He wouldn't have been immediately promoted to major or have lived a socially awkward life. A life that can only lead to mediocrity caused by a father's joke. )

Catch 22 Poster

Yossarian's Behavior

Analyze Yossarian's behavior.

Yossarian's behavior is outrageous, because he (and everyone else in the camp) is insane or is trying to act insane. Yossarian is a pilot, who doesn't care about completing the mission or the safety of others. Yossarian only cares about staying alive, because he believes someone is always trying to kill him. In a way, Yossarian is correct because he is in a war. Yossarian and the others are always trying to out crazy each other. In many parts in the book, Yossarian and Clevinger argue about whether they are insane or not, when in reality are just contributing to the fact that they are both insane. According to this quote from Catch-22, there is a logical reason for why everyone in the camp is so crazy, "There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane, he had to fly them. If he flew them, he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to, he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle" (247). This Catch in the military's rule code  basically says that insane people must fly, because if they ask to be grounded (kept from flying) they must be sane. This is because asking to be grounded is a rational decision, meaning that you must be able to think rationally. On top of this to get out of the war you have to fly a specific amount of missions, but everytime someone gets close to completing their missions, the amount of missions is raised. This makes it impossible to keep from flying, unless you are sick or injured. How can you keep from going crazy when you get put involuntarily into the military, and you don't even have an option to go back home? 

Air Force

http://animoto.com/play/brVp1rJQxyjKNpXzF0XChg

Malcolm Gladwell Ted Talk Response

Malcolm Gladwell rethinks and corrects the regular perspective of things to come to a rea understanding. Gladwell teaches that, even though we think might understand something, there is almost always something more to it. He also helps us to realize the things that are right in front of us that we fail to appreciate, like he talks about in his Spaghetti Sauce Talk. In Gladwell's David and Goliath story, Gladwell admits to having understood the story falsely. Through much thought, Gladwell realizes his understanding of this is all wrong, and he works to truly understand. This is one of the great artistic qualities of Malcolm Gladwell. Instead of simply accepting a statement, Gladwell views all dimensions of a subject to find and prove a statement for himself. He also attempts to help us do this by telling stories like the Norden Bombsight story, where Gladwell talks about an invention gone wrong. If we were all to rethink everything we thought we understood the way Gladwell does, we would discover alot more about the subject and teach ourselves new things. This is what Malcolm Gladwell is really trying to teach people through these talks. To not accept but to create for yourself an understanding that makes sense to you.

Malcolm Gladwell