Serial Killers and the Vietnam War

Aung Lin

ASA 2-Reading Reflection #5

Title: Serial Killers and the Vietnam War

Word Count:452

1.       Title: “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence” by Darrell V. Hamamoto

Serial Killer Timothy McVeigh

After I read Hamamoto’s article, I learned something new. Serial killers acts upon violent fantasies of death. I always thought serial killers killed innocent people because of sex, money, or revenge. I didn’t know they had fantasies and do it in real life. Parents shooting guns in front of their child is a very bad influence. Charles Whitman shot 15 people because he was fascinated by his father’s passion for guns ever since he was a child. I noticed that all the serial killers and all the people that had the lethal injection are non-Asian people. I think this shows that Asians are not capable of murdering many innocent people. Jack Reeves, Timothy McVeigh, and many of these serial killers once worked for US military. How can that be a coincidence? Military means killing people. I agree with Timothy McVeigh. What happened in Oklahoma City bombing is no different than American government bombing other countries.

Questions:

1)      Do all serial killers deserve death penalty even though they are considered to be mentally ill?

2)      Why are public sympathetic to criminals of violent crimes against people of color? People of color are humans just like white people.

2.       “From Saigon to Baghdad: The Vietnam Syndrome, the Iraq War and American Foreign Policy” by Andrew Priest.

The Vietnam War 

The legacy of the Vietnam War will go on forever. It is a very important part of US history and it’s being studied in details in schools around the world. Today, policymakers try to learn from their failure in Vietnam so they won’t make the same mistakes in the future. Back then US found the Vietnam War impossible to win and hard to withdraw. Many writers wrote books about this and discussed everything in details. It makes me sad that US is still having an on-going war with Iraq after so many years. I wish there’s a way to find peace. In my opinion, this is very similar to Vietnam War. What is the difference between an on-going war and an on-going war? Many people blamed President Bush Jr. for the on-going war and he keeps sending troops to Iraq. Some commentators say the war with Iraq is not similar to the Vietnam War but some says it’s almost the same.

Questions:

1)      Why did US got involved in the Vietnam War and how did they lose?

2)      US lost the Vietnam War for the first time in US history but are they winning the war with Iraq?