Week 5- Margirie Dublin

Margirie Dublin

Week 5

A02

This week’s article “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence,” discusses the downfall of war. Imperialism and militarism are two important concepts to grasp in American society and how these concepts have greatly affected outside minority groups. War is gruesome; with all the stories of minorities stating what happened, such as rape, physical and sexual abuse caused by soldiers. The power that imperialism has, especially with the Vietnam War held a lot of consequences for the community. Having such a traumatic event kill and continue to affect the community with deaths, harms the community and it becomes more at a high risk of murder. The normalization of murder has became a major issue for many Asians and Asian Americans. Whether or not the murders were racially or ethnically motivated but either way as this article addresses murder is still murder.

I believe that just as many other ethnic groups who suffer from witnessing and going through murder and extreme violence, this would be the same case for Asian Americans as well. In Vietnam there are still many side affects from Agent Orange till this day, many children are born with recognizable side affects that cuts their life line short. This is a horrific scene, yet they have been suffering with these affects and see it as normal. I personally do not think anyone should normalize murder. As a Native American studies major and talking with many Indigenous people who suffer from the first wave of colonialism and end up passing that trauma down to later generations and causing many mental problems. Just as the effects of the Vietnam war slowly yet continue to effect the Vietnam community. There extreme and unnecessary violence during wartime should be managed or punished. 

This image was in CNN's article about the Vietnam War, and exposes how these soldiers are treating this man, and how violent it has become. There is no humanity with the extreme physical violence occurring.

How can we manage our (American) citizens overseas and how do we address such crimes? Should incidents in other countries that would be considered a crime in America be tried brought up after wartime or in that country?

Hamamoto, D. (2003). Empire of Death and the Plague of Civil Violence. In C. Boggs (Ed.), Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire. (pp. 277-292). New York, NY: Routledge

Vietnam War Fast Facts. (2017, April 27). Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/01/world/vietnam-war-fast-facts/