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STUDENT NHD MEMOS

Essential Question: REVOLUTION, REACTION, REFORM-- HOW DOES REVOLUTION CHANGE SOCIETY?

MEMO I: TOPIC PROPOSAL......................................................due Thursday, April 5th

Date: 4/5/12

To: Mrs. Sidor

From: TJ Kennedy

Subject: What are the limits of government when pursuing wanted people?

In resent years the issue of what are the limits of a government perusing a criminal has been on the rise. The US more and more will violates nations sovereignty to capture or eliminate criminals. This has leads to diplomatic tension and increased hostility between nations. Some recent example of this are the raid on Osama Bin Laden and the drone strike that killed Anwar Awlaki (Cloud. U.S. Drone Strike in Yemen Kills U.S.-born Al Qaeda Figure Awlaki). These have raised the question "What are the limits of our government and its manhunts?" Looking forward, and increase in this activity could completely destroy US relations with other countries, especially those in the Middle East, leading to violent backlash.

MEMO 2:

Date: 4/10/12

To: Mrs. Sidor

From: TJ Kennedy

Subject: What are the limits of government when pursuing wanted people?

Large improvements in ways to gather information over the past few decades have greatly changed how we see the world. In regards to governments hunting down terrorist organizations and high risk individuals, these improvements have have greatly increase there effectiveness at tracking them down but now a new problem comes into play, other nations. When a group or individual is wanted in by one government they will flee to an area controlled by a government who will not try to persecute them. This creates a problem, one government wants to go in a get someone and the other is not willing to help.

This revolution has cause an increase in covert activities by governments in order to hunt down who their looking for. A recent example of this is the take down of Osama Bin Laden. The US government sent in special forces to take him down without telling the Pakistani government. (Mazzetti et al. Behind the Hunt for Bin Laden) This cause lots of diplomatic backlash in an already tense situation between governments. (Owens. U.S. Ups Security as Bin Laden Backlash Feared) This has sparked wide spread debate over to what extent can the government go to find who their looking for.

MEMO 3:

Date: 4/10/12

To: Mrs. Sidor

From: TJ Kennedy

Subject: History of problem

The issue of the governments limits to pursuing a criminal has long been unquestioned because the most wanted people in American have been right next door in Central and South America. Many of these involve removing a government from power that does not go with our interests. An example of this is the invasion of Panama in 1989 to remove President Noriega from power. (Dead or Alive, Runkle) He was supplying Marxist rebels in El Salvador, passing classified information to Warsaw Pact states and considered terrorist as his allies. To capture him the US deployed 13,000 marines and soldiers with and additional 11,000 airborne as reinforcements. The operation kicked off with SEAL teams destroying Noriega’s personal fast patrol boat and Learjet while the 2nd and 3rd Ranger Battalions launched an airborne assault on Noriega’s elite guard, the Macho de Monte. On December 21st, one day after the operation start, US forces were in control but Noriega was yet to be found. On Christmas Eve he emerged from hiding and took refuge in the Vatican embassy were he held out until January 3rd, when he surrendered. The removal of Noriega from power was a classic example of US activity in Central and South America during the Cold War. If a government was against our interests we would remove it. In more recent years thought we have had to deal with a new type of enemy.

After 911 our nation shifted it focus to insurgencies. Being stateless enemies we no longer were fighting governments but, international organizations divided up into separate, self reliant cells. No longer can we cut off the head, like in a communist regime and watch it crumble. We now must eliminate each individual cells. Since these organizations are stateless we have to work with local governments in order to fight them. The most well known being the hunt for Osama bin Laden. On manhunt in US history that greatly resembles this is the hunt for Augusto Sandino from 1927-1932.

Augusto Sandino became a threat after the US ended the civil war in Nicaragua between Liberal and Conservative factions. The US agreed to commit US Marines to keep order and train a new Guardia Nacional with the agreement that all other factions would stand down. Sandino refused even when offered a governorship and took his men to the mountains of Nueva Segovia proclaiming he was “the one called to defend the ideals of his country”. (Dead or Alive, Runkle) Initially not seen as a threat, the US ignored him because he only had 30 men. About a month after the treaty though he began to kidnap Europeans and plundering mines which brought money and volunteers to support him. On July 16 a remote Marine outpost at the town of Octal was attacked by 560 men lead by Sandino in the early morning. They besieged the Marine garrison in city hall and demanded their surrender. The commanding officer, Captain Gilbert Hatfield, responded with “Go to hell. A Marine never surrenders. We will remain here until we are dead or captured.” Around 10:15am two US recon planes flew over and spotted the Marines under fire. Four hours, five Curtiss biplanes appeared over head and began the first dive bombing attack in history. By their second pass the Sandinistas were in full retreat. In the end 300 Sandinistas were kill with only two Marine casualties and three Guardia wounded. After this immense loss, Sandino withdrew to the mountains and took on a campaign of gorilla warfare against the Marines for the next four years resulting in the death of many of his followers. In 1933 with the depression beginning to take its tole in America and the loss of 136 Marines in the hunt, the Marines left after the election of the new Nicaraguan president. In 1934, the US trained Guardia National arrested Sandino and killed him.

MEMO 4:

Date: 4/18/12

To: Mrs. Sidor

From: TJ Kennedy

Subject: What is the solution?

In order to improve the effectiveness of manhunts, nations must form coalitions in order to take down people and the regimes they are normally associated with. In the past coalitions have been very effective in accomplishing this. A prime example of this is the Gulf War were 29 nations worked together to defeat Iran and liberate Kuwait. In 100 hours coalitions forces had achieved a provisional ceasefire and a total ceasefire 14 days later. In that time Kuwait was liberated and the army of Iraq devistated. In total Iraq lost 25,000 troop with coalition forces on suffering 200 losses of there 500,000 deployed. (Gulf War) This shows that a well organized coalition force combining air, land and sea power can achieve its goals quickly and effectively with minimal loss.

MEMO 5:

Date: 4/18/12

To: Mrs. Sidor

From: TJ Kennedy

Subject: The problem

In the past, some coalition operations have gone terribly wrong. A very well know one is Somalia in 1992. UN forces lead by the US went in to restore order and the government to power in a collapsing state. The operation was an overall disaster, none of the goals were achieved and coalition forces took many losses for little gain. This failure was due to lack of funding, the absence of readily available forces, and an overdependence on the resources of the United States. This was then coupled with confused mandates and a breakdown in communication and confidence between the UN and the United States, this led to disaster and ultimately to an effective withdrawal of the United States from UN peacekeeping operations. (Peacekeeping...) This kind of event can be prevented if future coalitions are handled like the Gulf War, fast and effective.

MEMO 8:

Date: 4/18/12

To: Mrs. Sidor

From: TJ Kennedy

Subject: Call to Action

Coalitions have failed in the past, but these failures could have been prevented through better planning and support. With good planning and support coalitions can be fast and effective like in the Gulf War. These coalitions are intended to prevent nations from violating others sovereignty when hunting for people. This is beneficial because it prevents diplomatic tension. This is important for our future if we with to live in a better, safer world.


 * BIBLIOGRAPHY **

Cloud, David S. "U.S. Drone Strike in Yemen Kills U.S.-born Al Qaeda Figure Awlaki." //Los Angeles Times//. Los Angeles Times, 01 Oct. 2011. Web. 02 May 2012. .

"U.S. Ups Security as Bin Laden Backlash Feared." //CBSNews//. Ed. Bill Owens. CBS Interactive, 02 May 2011. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. .

Head editor at CBS News

Mazzetti, Mark, Helene Cooper, and Peter Baker. "Behind the Hunt for Bin Laden." //New York Times//. New York Times, 2 May 2011. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. .

Mark Mazzetti is a national security expert at the New York Times

"Punitive Expedition" The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Berkley Books, 2001. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Infohio - NOACSC. 29 November 2011 <[|http://www.oxfordreference.com]>.

Schmidle, Nicholas. "Getting Bin Laden." //The New Yorker//. 8 Aug. 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. .

Runkle, Benjamin. "Dead OR Alive." //MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History//Autumn 2011: 20-31,11. //History Study Center//. Web. 15 May 2012.

Benjamin Runkle ("Dead or Alive," page 20), a former army paratrooper and veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, is the author of the new book Wanted Dead or Alive: Manhunts From Geronimo to Bin Laden (Palgrave Macmillan). He holds a doctorate from Harvard University and was director of speech writing for the National Security Council under President George W. Bush. "Peacekeeping: Postcolonial Africa." //Encyclopedia of African History.// Ed. Kevin Shillington. 2005. //History Study Center//. Web. 15 May 2012. "Gulf War, Second (Iraq and UN Coalition, 1991)." //The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century History.// 2002. //History Study Center//. Web. 16 May 2012.