“We like to fight the Russians,” said the Chechen, who refused to give his real name. “We always fight the Russians.”
Classic Chechens, it’s insane some are now actually aiding the Ukrainians and fighting the Russians. Give it a read. ]
Well this is embarrassing, it seems that my final project will not submit. Here’s the fix:
Glen Bennett
WRTC 103
06/07/2015
Project #2: Eastern Ukraine In Distress
President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine has been in a state of war against anti-government separatists backed by Russia in the eastern part of the nation since April 6th 2014, following the Ukrainian Revolution of 2014 and Euromaidan movement in which Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from his Presidency. Neighboring Russia to the East then subsequently, annexed Crimea killing only one Ukranian soldier in the process in response to expanding pro-Russian protests against the government of Ukraine which occurred mostly within Southern and Eastern Ukraine. Within 24 days Putin seized control of Crimea, creating the newly formed Republic of Crimea which is loyal to the Russians, unlike it’s former loyalty to Ukraine. On April 6th 2014, pro-Russian protests in the self-declared anti-Ukranian territories of Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Repubic located in eastern Ukraine finally escalated into an armed conflict. After a month of initial conflict, Russia began to accelerate the conflict by directly aiding and assisting the growing separatist force against the current government of Ukraine with arms, armored vehicles, tanks, and other equipment. The current Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, has called Russia’s actions in Eastern Ukraine as a “stealth invasion” and a “direct invasion of by Russia of Ukraine”. Russia’s assistance to anti-government forces in Eastern Ukraine has directly contributed to their continuous resistance and subsequent territorial gains and current occupation.
What really ended up drawing attention to this conflict was the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on July 17th of 2014 in which pro-Russian separatist forces downed a civilian airliner headed for Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam. This incident killed 298 civilians in just one day. According to both German and US intelligence agencies, a Russian made Buk missile system was responsible for downing the airliner; the assailants members of the self-proclaimed Donbass People’s Militia. Russia has stated that Ukraine should bear full responsibility for the incident due to the fact that it occurred within Ukranian airspace.
There is no formal declaration of war between the current government of Ukraine and Putin’s Russia which is odd given the fact that Russian forces have been reportedly killed by government forces of Ukraine in the war-torn regions. The first account of Russian presence in Ukraine was on August 25th 2014 when the Security Service of Ukraine captured a group of Russian paratroopers on active service in Ukraine. Russia’s Defense Ministry said those soldiers had crossed over into Ukraine “by accident”. Two days later “well-over” 1,000 Russian military crossed over into the Donbass region of Ukraine from Russia with various pieces of equipment. Reports that have been openly denied by Russia indicate that prior to this deployment into Ukraine, shelling Eastern Ukraine with artillery had occurred in support of the anti-government separatist forces. Since August 2014, Russian forces operating within eastern Ukraine have been a “permanent” theme of the ongoing conflict with more and more support coming from Putin’s cabinet.
Due to the nature of this conflict, given the fragile relationship Ukraine has had with Russia historically, including it’s eventual breakaway from Russia, and it’s proximity to Europe as well as past and present history of the nation, resolving the conflict peacefully is the only true way to ensure a lasting impact. I want to bring awareness to the fact that Putin’s actions in Ukraine are envoking the separatist movement and is also bringing ongoing European destabilization throughout the continent. The idea of a “New Russia” that the rebels wish to establish on behalf of Putin has done nothing but harm to both Russia and Ukraine. The Russian ruble has virtually collapsed causing the Russian economy to shrink as a whole due to international sanctions placed against Russia which are also unfortunately hurting the Russian people. I plan to use Twitter in my project by creating #ABetterUkraine and #ABetterRussia on the social media website which will display all the benefits of ending the conflict in Ukraine including peace, prosperity, and eventual partnership between the two nations and the rest of the world. Hopefully with my activism, the hashtags will catch on and people will recognize the true nature of the conflict. For the overall well-being of humanity, this conflict in my opinion should be ended because it’s being fought without justification. The separatist groups, with the help of their Russian sponser, are determinded to break away from Ukraine with their illegitimate cause but, it’s important for those responsible to realize that their decision to start a war is affecting hundreds of thousands of people globally. I also plan on creating a separate Facebook page for spreading awareness of this conflict and will continue to use it throughout the summer. As a person with whose heritage is both Ukranian and Russian, studying this conflict is quite interesting along with the fact that the United States of America just wrapped up it’s longest war in Afghanistan.
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Glen Bennett
WRTC 103
06/11/15
Hashtag Activism Reflection
I enjoyed the design and style of this project. The fact that activism through social media is still a relatively new practice to me is unique as there has truly never been anything similar to it. As more and more major media outlets become controlled to the corporate dollar, social media along with the versatility and freedom of the internet seems like it’s one of the last outlets of the common man’s free-speech. It’s truly amazing anyone with a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Plus account with an internet connection can voice themselves about anything and gather a following in the process whereas in the past people were so unconnected with one another. The transitional shift from being completely disconnected from each other to virtually connected with a plethora of potential like-minded individuals over a topic has true potential to kickstart something whether it be about concerns for the environment, national politics, monetary delegation, or animal rights. As long as the interest is there, momentum will spur. However, given the lack of resources, I believe an idea which begins on a social media outlet can only have so much done. I’ve found that the bigger social media campaigns that traditionally gather attention on the bigger websites such as Facebook and Twitter have a few key characteristics which assist in bringing attention to a topic or situation. For example, when I researched into an anti-Genetically Modified Organisms campaign over Twitter I found multiple pages dedicated to raising awareness to the risks GMOs possess with their own unique hashtags, messages, pictures, and donation links. Overall, this project definitely made me realize the scope and depth social media websites truly have. It almost makes me upset that people use these super powerful social media tools to broadcast either stupidity or their own self-centered agendas. It’s unfortunate however as millions of people continue to use social media everyday and fail to realize the true potential of their posts and instead simply waste their time away on watching funny cat or peering into the life of someone in your high school graduating class.
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Artifacts
http://imgur.com/9ry1ze2,lQOvPg6,YZZsB83
Enjoy!
This marks 15. I hope you all have enjoyed the quality of my posts. With my last post I leave you this:http://www.usnews.com/dims4/USNEWS/d8c3381/2147483647/thumbnail/766×511%3E/quality/85/?url=%2Fcmsmedia%2F23%2F70b67d04555844208b9d9772759cb1%2F1102-43
I thought it was funny over how is described Kim Jong-un as a child with China as it’s mother state in the midst of the Korean conflict. Well have a great summer folks! Maybe we’ll see some resolutions to some of the topics i’m writing about, hopefully. Only time will tell.
To keep things brief as we wrap up this last day of class, I want to bring up how Russia has continuously supported North Korea since it’s creation. The same applies to the US and South Korea. I only don’t call it a proxy war because it’s still technically going on, no peace treaty was ever signed. The real question is what is to come of the two nations?
The country could be potentially reunified, it seems like nobody wanted to deal with the displacement of that many North Koreans as well as the potential Chinese backlash that they would inevitably put out. I think the entire Korean conflict is sad as the Korean empire used to be unique and mighty. Too bad is was torn apart by the Russians and Americans. Who even knows what a united Korea could’ve looked like today.
This: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-dMM3HRnhY should explain as to why the Saudi Arabians and Iranians have poor relations despite the fact they’re technically geopolitical neighbors in the Middle East. As the United States continues to be allied with the Saudi Arabians, Russia continues to actively support Iran as previously mentioned before. Only adding fuel to the fire between the US and Russia as well as the Sauds and the Iranians.
This: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wo2TLlMhiw should explain most of the Arab-Isreali conflict that had drawn in both the interests of Washington and Moscow.
With Washington’s continued support for the Israel and Russia’s mutual interest in supporting Iran and the country’s allies like Lebanon and Palestine, Russia Today released this footage of the damage the US-backed Israelis destroying the small chunk of territory many Palestinians call home in an effort to slam both Israel and the US.
Watch at your own will
You’ve definitely never seen anything like this before. KGB in the US during the Cold War? I thought this a good example of a juxtaposition as the CIA did similar things in the USSR. This video also touches on Cuba’s relation with the US at the time when it was supported by the Soviet Union as well as the effects of splitting Europe apart with the Iron Curtain as destabilized the continent and spurred other conflicts regionally.
http://davidmixner.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c90b153ef01901da1afe7970b-pi
I choose to include these political cartoons in an effort to diversify the posted content on my blog. I also feel they do the situations in Ukraine, Syria, and between Iran/Israel. Enjoy them
So I was thinking about it, we Americans have never truly experienced a modern conflict in our own contiguous 48 states. In fact, given the might of our defense strategy should something come up, I definitely could see the US could being able to handle itself. What I’m trying to say is that between the Cold War which started the American attitude to outdo the Communists we’ve progressively affected most regions of the world. In the process of the US and Russia intervening in foreign governments, so many nations are no longer the same. Countries that had great potential and stability prior to American or Communist were dismantled and ripped apart. Most notably being Korea, Vietnam, and a few Middle Eastern nations. While there were some notable success examples South Korea being the best American example and Vietnam/China being the a What shall come of of nations ravaged by wars such as Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Syria? It is crazy to think that throughout the course of human history they’re are always few who govern many.
ProxyWarsInOurWorldToday 
