Christopher Mai
998998295
ASA02-A01
In Darrell Y. Hamamoto’s article, “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence,” he talks about murders and deaths in the U.S. and their causes amidst the sociocultural circumstances surrounding them. Many of them stem from white U.S. ex-military personnel who fuse stealth, combat, and arms training with the negative feelings they received from the military. These militant murderers’ motives came from a few main concepts. Some murderers have had insubordinate tendencies, some were fanatics of the U.S.’s widespread gun culture, and others harbored hatred of another race as a result of a war. I find it disgusting and primitive that these people who pledged to protect the people of our country bring their hatred upon their own fellow citizens who, in comparison to their enemies abroad, share nothing in common except appearance. But alas, the effects of war on a person’s mind is unfathomable to those who haven’t experienced it first-hand, and if we accept this as one possible natural phenomenon that occurs in our military personnel, we need to enact policies to keep ex-military personnel on our soil in check. These motives that gave birth to the killers Hamamoto mentioned still exist today as the U.S. engages in foreign affairs in the Middle East and recently in Asia, so this is an issue that is definitely going to come up in the near future..
When reading this article, I was reminded of a video I watched the day before which I will post below. It legitimately explained the reasons why the U.S. should be spending on military which all center around North Korea’s nuclear tests. If war were to break out between our two countries, what would happen to our society’s treatment of not only Korean Americans, but also Asian Americans (because our white society often fails to distinguish the differences between us)? If the 21st century hasn’t taught us any better, this would be another prime situation for not only our ex-military personnel, but also the uneducated masses to express their anxiety, fear, and anger towards Asian Americans at home.
Video:
Resources
Boggs, C. (2003). Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire. New York, New York: Routledge.
Vox. The North Korean nuclear threat, explained (2017, April 26). Retrieved April 29, 2017 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g9j_ZkuJig&t=311s
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