Blog Assignment #5: Research Proposal

The specific topic I intend to research is recruitment for the Iraq war. To get even narrower than that, I am going to specifically focus on the recruitment of minors in our country to join the war when they are of age. This is a serious problem that began with the military’s rapid falling numbers of enlistees in September of 2005. So, the limited time period for this topic will be from then to the present day. Geographically this obviously only takes place in the United States because it is American children being persuaded to join the American army. However, I am aware that certain areas are targeted much more heavily than others due to race, gender, and most importantly, class, and I will need to be looking into that. It is important to recognize what types of children are targeted more than others and why. By seeing this the topic will be limited itself. The historical and critical context of this topic is the war in Iraq, and very specifically the army failing to meet their recruitment numbers for the first time in over a decade. Another major part of the overall context is the extreme controversies that are debated and caused by this war throughout our nation. One major example of which specifically, is my topic, recruitment of minors. Through research I want to look at how they are targeted, who targets them, and what methods of campaigning are used to reel them in. I want to look into the type of advertising that is being used and directed towards these children and if it is false or not. I also want to look at importantly, what people are doing to prevent and stop this act of greed by the army, and how they are going to do so. These questions don’t investigate whether I agree or disagree with my topic, the delve into it to see the controversies about in depth and exploit them. These questions have rhetorical substance and the answers to them will persuade my reader to understand my rhetorical purpose.

My topic is valid because it fits perfectly into our them of war. The war in Iraq is a tragic ongoing war, and we have learned in depth details of this through our Unit 1 assignments. I was very disturbed by the emotional appeals I got from my visual artifact in my Unit 1 essay, as well as by the information I found and used in order to support my purpose. These facts, opinions, and overall information wanted me to dig deeper and get to the roots of the disturbing problem of the recruitment of minors in our country to sign up for such a dangerous future. It is one of the numerous controversies brought about throughout our country from the war with Iraq, but it is one that personally disturbed me. I want to know how bad it is, and if it is going to be a problem that continues if the war does. I want to see if this controversy is one that proves the war must end immediately or if is one of many that is blown out of proportion. So, I intend to research this topic and these questions because it is something I am not only particularly interested in but have developed and emotional feel for. I think tampering with the minds of not only the children of our country but the future of our country is a dangerous and immoral thing. Why is our government allowing such a thing? Don’t they think they are also taking the easy way out by targeting a specific group of people? I am concerned for the children of our country if they are being recruited to the army which leads to my concern for the future of our country because we the children are the future.

I intend to research this topic and those questions starting with the research I have already done. I will go back to my sources from my first essay and read them over again to see what else I can find and if they can take me to other sources that will be of help. I want statistics and facts as well as the many opinions that are out there to add to my research and paper. I will take both fact and opinion into consideration and incorporate them both into my paper because they matter equally. Facts are facts, but the opinions are what are creating the controversies and upheavals throughout our nations. The opinions are going to change what is going on in our country for better or for worse. I want to get all different perspectives on this topic and then delve into why these people are saying what they are saying and upon further research see if it is all justified or not. What do the children or better yet the parents of the children who are being recruited feel? What do the children and parents of the children who are not being targeted feel? This matters.

My topic matters not only to me but to everyone living in the United States. If our children are being recruited to the army as such a young age it is imperative that this is recognized by everyone, and we work together for a change. I think one important part of my research, however, is that although this topic should be recognized by everyone, who does is matter to more within the United States? Who does it matter to the most? I will discover this answer throughout my research as well as why. But overall as a country this issue needs to be looked at and addressed and with that, to me, our nation can see the bigger picture and problem. Importantly, also, I think children would be interested in my work. They are the ones this is happening to, or people just like them. Not only is it important that they are in the know but that they see what is happening to their peers and their similar types. Our nation is at stake here and it is imperative that we recognize a huge controversy and problem, such as my topic, that is being caused do to the context in which is it in; the continuing war with Iraq. 

Blog Assignment #4: War Porn

The rhetorical purpose of this essay was understood through claims that allowed for the generating of original ideas. The original ideas Laurie is trying to get across to the readers are that the United States and the culture it consists of might not be as “civilized” as it claims to be. She is also trying to generate the ideas that there is a blatant increase in the popularity for “war porn,” which makes it obvious to not only outsiders but the people in our country themselves that we are not as humanitarianly as we claim to be. Through these general ideas, she narrowed her thoughts down and researched deeper to make the original claim that war porn encourages democratic participation and is the “ultimate perversion of the abjection of war and power.“ She came to realize this original idea but analyzing this so called “war porn,” and in its depths finding the underlying meanings behind such cruel displays.  It was instigated by Bresheeth’s question, “What has happened,” and “is a muted embarrassment…Such deeds, regrettable as they might be, are necessary, the Western public seems to be saying – but why photograph them?” and grounded in negation of postmodern explanations and interpretations of the hidden meanings and causes of war porn offered by Jean Baudrillard and Susan Sontag. Stemmed from these sources, Laurie’s further research and inquiries led her to see differently than others, which is what led to her original idea. She looks past the evidence provided as she fails to believe that war porn is only a mere reflection of a shameless military culture that has lost their moral compass for the reasons that are given to the public. She does not agree with the dismissal of war porn resulting as it being looked at in that way, which is what led her to move away from her sources and generate her own thoughts. Through the research Laurie supplies on war porn conducted by other scholars she inserts her own ideas into the conversation to fill the gap she noticed. These scholars claim that war porn is developed and displayed due to the “shamelessness” cruelty of our military culture, but fail to recognize and explain where this shamelessness is stemmed from. That’s where she puts her two cents in and justifies the scholars’ claims for them. Within the conversation in her essay, she takes their theories and statements to the next level to satisfy her own, and prove herself correct. In her essay she also uses her research differently to accomplish her rhetorical purpose. Her synthesis incorporates many elements that justify and clarify the purpose of her writing. She uses examples, which are the war porn photos, as evidence, to put the picture of what she is explaining to the reader in front of them, allowing them to view the horrors for themselves while reading her words. This ads to the ethos of the paper and creates emotion leading them to eventually see her purpose exactly how she is trying to get it across. Laurie uses Bresheeth’s question as a catalyst to stir up her own original ideas. She states his question, but then responds to it, as well as explains how his questions need to be more in depth and look at more subjects, which leads her to. She uses research of by Jean Baudrillard and Susan Sontag to elaborate on and justify her postmodern explanations and interpretations of the hidden meanings and causes of war porn. She uses their research to compare and contrast with in order to use it as a catalyst to further what they are saying into her own ideas, and how she doesn’t exactly agree. She compares their research to her ideas by contrasting them in proving her disagreement with the dismissals of war porn. It is completely blatant that she is doing this when she states,  “Baudrillard and Sontag would pinpoint war porn here as an end product of a complex association of prior events.  I want to pinpoint war porn here, as an origin of social activity that has the power in Latour’s terms to make other actors do something that modifies a state of affairs and makes a difference.” She also contrasts Kevin Michael DeLuca and Jennifer Peeples’ research to Andy Grundberg’s to show different analysis’ of the subject, but then agrees with DeLuca and Peeple’s to justify her purpose. Laurie’s organization of all of her information makes her rhetorical purpose clear to the reader and immensely effective. By starting out with background information then moving on to explain disturbing images, to explaining how they are warn porn, to describing what war porn is as she goes through what it consists of and why other scholars think it is out there, before explaining her opinions and original ideas on the matter, she maintains and organized and understandable essay. This contributes to her rhetorical purpose because a major key to the rhetoric of her paper because in order to understand her purpose the reader must be walked through all the elements of it in a clear and orderly fashion until they can then see her point and stand by it. The images Laurie uses in the essay function mainly to appeal to the pathos of the reader. It creates emotion by not only disturbing the reader with the horrific sites they depict but by proving her statements and claims completely true. This saddens and angers the reader as they realize the harsh realities and cruelties of our own military. The image create a deeper emotion among the readers because as they read the text they have the ugly evidence right in front of their faces as sheer proof. When talking about Bresheeth’s question and getting her own inquiries out of it in order to dig deeper in discovering her own original purpose she makes logical appeals. She is asking the reader questions regarding morals and our morals within our culture as a country. With this she is appealing to the audience’s rationality, and how they actually feel towards the morbid subject, suggesting that they should not be supporting it. Her questions make the audience think about the cruelties of our own army during this war with Iraq, as she wants them to realize how horrible they are and that they need to end immediately. Laurie makes ethical appeals by explaining what Bruno Latour says are immediators, and what they have to do with war porn. She agrees with his statements and theories and uses his to back up and support her own. Reciting information and facts from a scholar and siding with it giver her as the author credibility, thus making her purpose more understandable and agreeable to the audience.