We went to go visit Senator Dodd's office and while there we talked to his representative, Lieutenant Martin. We talked about what Dodd's thinks about the military and the draft. For more information on Senator Dodd, you may go to the link http://dodd.senate.gov/~dodd/index.php?q=node/2954.

Rifleman Creed

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than the enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. My rifle and I know that what counts in war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, or the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit.

My rifle is human, even as I am human, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories, its sights and its barrel. I will keep my rifle clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other.

Before God I swear this creed. My rifle and I are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life.

So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy.

Chris Peble on War

We went to the CATO Institute and met with a man named Chris Preble. To learn more about his opinion on war you can move your cursor to

http://blog.psaonline.org/2007/01/30/conditions-for-increasing-active-duty-force/

THANKS

armywrong.net

This website shows and tell the people the wrong that the army is leaving in the war. Many people think that the army is doing something good but it is also harming people. This website shows how the army hurts those who are innocent and kill the family that only want to defend their children etc.

armywrong.net

A perspective of World War II

Hi, My name is Diamond Harris and in my capstone i have read a book called I Had Seen Castles, by Cynthia Rylant. This books is about a boy named john who wants to join in the war. John has a girlfriend named Ginny that he meets and Ginny doesn't want john to join the war because she is a conscientious objector and she says he will miss everything. John insist on wanting to join the war because he believes on fighting for his country. " if you die you'll miss everything. you won't be back you will miss everything." This means that if john goes to the war he might die and he'll never come back. Ginny also believes if john attend the war than the will be no chance of him being there for her. In conclusion, john really cares about Ginny but he wants to fight for his country.

(check out this author at this site below)
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/rylant.htm

Mr.Flahavan From Selective Service

On June 15, 2007, we guest a guest speaker and his name was Mr.Flahavan, that is a representative from the Selective Service. He came to talk with us about the Selective Service. Mr.Flahavan told us that the Selective Service is mandatory military service that supplies manpower to the Armed Forces in an emergency and maintain an alternative service for men that are conscientious objectors. It is the law for all men that are 18 through 25 years of age to register with Selective Service before their 26th birthday, or they will be prosecuted. He also said that all women are excluded from registration and combat. You can register for Selective Service on-line, at the post office, check box, or at your high school. Once a man gets qualified for the draft, he could make a claim for classification as a CO, which is a conscientious objector that is opposed to participate in war because of moral or religious beliefs. There are two different types of service that are available for a CO, and it's determined by their specific beliefs. The first type is the alternative service and that is the men that are opposed to serve in any form of the military, and the second type is the men whose beliefs allow them to serve in the military but won't let them participate in training or any other duties that involve weapons. To get more information on the Selective Service, you can go to www.sss.gov
-Janae Smith

Quotes from "The Things They Carried" by Tim O, Brien

The book "The Things They Carried" was written by author and Vietnam War veteran Tim O' Brien in 1990.This book is fiction but is based on many of his real experiences as a soldier. Below are quotes that I believe to be memorable and relevant to our CAP. This was an excellent book and I am glad I read it. I highly recommend it.
-Jessica Miles


Page 20,Chapter: "The Things They Carried"

"When someone died, it wasn't quite dying, because in a curious way it seemed scripted, and because they had their lines mostly memorized, irony mixed with tragedy, and because they called it by other names, as if to encyst and destroy the reality of death itself."


Page 44,Chapter: "On The Rainy River"

"I was afraid of walking away from my own life, my friends and my family, my whole history, everything that mattered to me. I feared losing the respect of my parents.I feared the law. I feared ridicule and censure."

Page 80,Chapter: "How To Tell A True War Story"

"How do you generalize? War is hell,but thats not the half of it,because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling;war is drudgery. War makes you a man;war makes you dead."

Page 81,Chapter: "How To Tell A True War Story"

"To generalize about war is like generalizing about peace. Almost everything is true. Almost nothing is true."


Page 82,Chapter: "How To Tell A True War Story"

"For the common soldier, at least, war has a feel-the spiritual texture- of a great ghostly fog,thick and permanent. There is no clarity. everything swirls. The old rules are no longer true. Right spills over into wrong. Order blend into chaos,love into hate,ugliness into beauty, law into anarchy, civility into savagery. The vapors suck you in. You can't tell where you are,or why your there, and the only certainty is overwhelming ambiguity. "


Page 179,Chapter: "Good Form"

"I did not kill him. But I was present you see, and my presence was guilt enough."


Page 179, Chapter: "Good Form"

"I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth."

Page 225, Chapter: "The Lives of the Dead"

"But in a story, which is kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world."

Reflection by Bijan Tyson

Jun 19,2007
"Conscientious Objector" is a poem written by Edan St. Vincent Millay. This poem is about a man holding on to his obligation and explaining how he is a conscientious objector. He feels so strongly that he says, "I will not give him a leg up. Though he flick my shoulders with his whip, I will not tell him which way the fox ran." This means that he will not give them any warnings or heads up, also that he will not take part in giving any direction to or from the victims. Also he writes "I will not tell him the whereabouts of my friends nor of my enemies either." This suggest that he will keep his mouth close at all times and that he will not say a word or clues to neither sides.
-Bijan Tyson

Isreali Embassy Reflection

Today is June, 12 2007 was experimental. We first went to Israeli Embassy to talk about how the military is in Israel and other countries. While the man, Colonel Zacks talks about how he got in the military and how it was a draft back then. If there was a draft colonel Zacks stated "if you didn't graduate from high school the military would pay for it". Colonel Zacks also stated "if you don't have or wear uniform you are called a civilian". This means you will be one of the last type of colonel. After coming from the Israeli Embassy we went to Adams Morgan, Where we saved a baby that could have been killed today because the baby's father left him in the car so that he can go into McDonald's. After that we wrote down the tag number and called the police. We then went to go eat falafels at Adams Morgan food place. The food was good but it wasn't all that I wouldn't buy it with my own money. The trip was fun and educating, we experimented a lot of new things about the military that we didn't even know. We also experimented being in a new country.

WHO DO YOU MOST EMPATHIZE WITH FROM THE MOVIE, FULL METAL JACKET

IN THE MOVIE, FULL METAL JACKET, I EMPATHIZE WITH THE SOLDIERS THAT WERE WITH LAURENCE, BUT I WOULDN'T GO AS FAR AS BEATING HIM WITH ALL THE BARS OF SOAP BECAUSE HE KEPT GETTING HIS FELLOW SOLDIERS IN TROUBLE, I WOULD HAVE JUST A FEW PUNCHES.BUT I ALSO EMPATHIZE WITH THEM BECAUSE, IF THE PERSON I BEAT UP STARTED TO GO CRAZY AND KILL HIMSELF, I WOULD FEEL BAD TOO. by -Kara A.C Carpenter-L.

U.S Mercenaries

The U.S mercenaries for the U.S effort because they are being mistreated and the soldiers are being and treated unfair. To support this a solider from the movie said that"I was in the bathroom washing my clothes bu then the commander came in and told me that I had to give it the person who clothes for 99 dollars". It was really a bad situation because the military was losing soldiers and it was difficult to recruit others to take their place. In the movie some people were embarrassed to show their face because they're were either raped or badly beaten. Mothers had lost their sons and others were tortured by other brutal people. In conclusion the mercenaries are bad for the U.S effort provided by the evidence that I have supported in this draft. The U.S soldiers do not deserve to be treated like dogs while they are in a another country risking their lives. The soldiers do not have any clean water and mostly have body odor due to the fact that they can't wash up. Also that the military should not have the same lunch time everyday. That will give the enemy a chance to launch a attack while they are defenseless waiting to eat. So the facts are that the soldiers deserve better than this and needs to be treated better.

Full Metal Jacket

In our class, we watched a movie called, Full Metal Jacket. In the movie, there was a character named Leonard. At the end of his training, he went into the bathroom and shot himself in the head. His peers beat him with bars of soap in his sleep and treated him as if he were an outcast. the drill Sargent humiliated Leonard, and often punished his peers for mistakes he'd made. If I was in Leonard's situation, I wouldn't kill myself, but I might kill the people who hurt me later on in combat. In the movie, there was another character named Joker who disagreed with Vietnam war, which was the era that the movie took place in. Despite his position in the war, Joker was drafted and had to go to war. On his helmet was written, "Born to Kill", and on his jacket he wore a button with a peace symbol. When asked what it meant and was it a joke he replied that, "it reepresented the duality of the war." Joker was a journalist, so he showed his disagreement with the war using sarcasm. He was not allowed to directly speak out against the war, as it was against the law for him. I think I would feel like Joker in the war. After viewing Full Metal Jacket I see how much I disagree with the war also.

Mr. Phelan's Draft Experience

Yesterday, our principal Mr.Phelan gave a speech about his experience visiting the Military draft board. He was still in school but he wasn't graduating that year due to his grades. He also felt scared because his 2 uncles had been prisoners of war in WWII.
He told us that he received a letter from the military in the mail telling him to report there to have a physical performed. He was "very scared" because he didn't want to be apart of the war. He decided to say that he had a bad back and bad knees from sports and his girlfriend at the times father was a doctor so he got his medical records. He reached the end of his series of tests and they stamped his paper acceptable. He was upset because he couldn't believe it. His friend looked at his folder and then he realized that the officer stamped acceptable for his dental records and that he in fact had been rejected because of his "bad knees and back"

Our Visit To The Cato Institute

On June 13, 2007, our draftcap10 group took a trip to the Cato Institute. The Cato Institute was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane. The Cato Institute is a public policy research foundation that is located in Washington, DC. We had a speaker and his name was Christopher Preble. Mr.Preble taught us a lot about the government, the military, and the draft. A draft is involuntary labor demanded by people with authority and government policies that require citizens to serve their country. Christopher Preble himself was once in the military and he said that he disagree with the draft because he feel that you shouldn't take away people's freedom or make them do things that they don't agree with. If it was a draft and people decided that they didn't want to serve for the military, they will be punished. Mr.Preble said when people volunteer to join the military, they serve more time serving their country than they would if they were drafted. I agree with Mr.Preble because the draft is a violation of people rights. The only way you can get out of a draft, is if you don't meet all the military requirements. Even though you may not meet all the requirements, you can still be drafted if the military needs more troops. If you want to know more information about the Cato Institute, you can go to http://www.cato.org/
-Janae Smith

My Opinion Of The Draft

1 out of 10, where would I stand on my belief of the draft? I would say that I stand at about a 4. I believe in this because a draft is a complete violation of human rights, and will cause conflict in the military. While Rangel's theory about the draft is possibly true, the sacrifice that a draft forces people to make is far too great. Also a draft will cause disloyal soldiers to more risk the lives of skilled and loyal soldiers in the military, which would cause more unnecessary deaths, as our previous guest Lt.Lesley stated last week.

Isreal High on Military

Israel is a country that is high on its military forces. The Israeli have a law that every man and woman that makes them have to enter the military and train after they have graduated from high school or college. Israel is very protective of its land because they are in a lot of danger. Every day there are bombings in the streets also the Palestine want their land back from the Israeli. The Israeli land grew because they got it from the countries around it such as Jordon, Syria, and Lebanon. Israel was created after the world war II and the holocaust. The purpose of Israel is to give the Jewish a home to be in thanks to America.
During the field trip of June 12, 2007 we meet with a colonel. Colonel Zacks helped us understand more of the Israel culture and laws. Colonel Zacks works for the Israeli embassy which is here in the U.S. but is part of the Israel territory. He told us that Israel is very small, so small that you can take a plain from left to right in three minutes and you can take the plain from up to down in about 90 minutes. Also in Israel their language and writings are in Hebrew and one of their most famous foods is a Falafel. So Israel is in a lot of danger because of terrorist and other countries wanting the land back. That’s why the Israelis go into the army after they graduate.

The Wildest CAP day

My experience today was wild and fun. It started out by visiting the Israel Embassy . The class met with Colonel Zack's, he told me some interesting things I didn't know at first or I never knew at all. He told us he got four kids, he was force to come to the US for 3 years and that Israel is a small country. I also learn from him that in Israel traditionally boys and girls have to serve two years of the military. Later on during his conversation with us. He gave us some important information like Israel became a state in 1948. I didn't know that Israel sign a peace treaty with Egypt. In the military in Israel you don't get paid you are force to fight for your country. And if you do get paid Mr. Zack said your getting paid less than minimum wages but that's for community services. One of the most important things he said were that if you were to join the military in Israel and you didn't finish High School the military would pay for you to graduate from the military. One quote I remember him saying was that " Being in the military have good affects on society". Overall we had a pretty good day until we went to lunch, when a man left a baby in the car by himself and the car was going backwards. But we did good as a class by noticing that. But overall we had a pretty good day.

I took a trip to the Russell Senate Office building, I learned that the Russell Senate Office building is the oldest office building. I also learned that during the Vietnam war there were lots of draft just to fight in that war. The Vietnam war lasted long because its draft and if there was no draft the people would just decide to stop fighting in the war but it didn't because of the draft. I also learned that in 1973 all volunteer force begin meaning if you wanted to join the military you could, that same year the draft ended. People that serve in the military were only male from the ages 18 to 25 years of age.

Mercenary Coporations

As far as a purpose of war mercenary corporations are good. However mercenary corporations were terrible for American war effort and on America's behalf as a whole. As the Iraqi described what was happening he mentioned "The Americans took my money and hurt me very bad." They (the mercenary corporations) did gruesome things to people that were just unacceptable. Yet some of the mercenaries actions that took place were under the supervision of American soldiers. Personally I think the mercenary corporations are there for people who are no longer in the military to fall back on when they leave, and so there will never be a deficit of soldiers.
-Bijan Black

Reflection On Mr.Lesley's Presentation

Mr.Lesly helped me view the military very differently then I did before his presentation. I learned more reasons why an individual would want to join the military such as travel,and learned in depth details about the reasons I already knew such as money. I learned that many people join the military to experience things they could never experience in another line of work. For example,Mr.Lesley shared with us that he has flown helicopters and been in nuclear submarines. Both of these are experiences are ones that are only possible in the military. I also learned what kind of people would be against the draft. He taught us that contrary to belief,the military is actually against the a draft. I learned that when there is a draft, it affects the feeling of unity and sense of community in the military because not everyone has chose to be there. As a result of this,it makes it harder to trust everyone around you and cause you to have less faith that every individual will be there whole-heartily in a time of need. I connected this back to the overall theme of www.goarmy.com ,which is unity, and the belief in an army of one.

-Jessica Miles

Draftcap10 Wants you!

Hello students! This is your blog. You will each turn at least one of your journal entries into a blog entry. You will also be responsible for blogging one military/ draft issue over the course of our CAP. We will upload photos and videos from our experiences. You may invite friends and family to view your blog. Please be aware that you will be responsible for the content on the blog and you will be graded for it. Do not let others log on or enter posts for you. It will be plagiarism.