Tag Archives: war

Do Now Round Up: North Korea

April 16, 2013, 9:29 am • Posted by Matthew Williams
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Do Now #72 Round Up

Last week's KQED Do Now investigated North Korea's threat to attack their neighbors and even the United States. In recent years, North Korea has made several threats to develop and deploy nuclear weapons on countries like South Korea, Japan, and even the United States. These type of threats were never met with major concern as it seemed clear that North Korea was not close to building weapons grade nuclear materials nor had the capability to fire long range missiles outside its border. Well, things have changed.

Students' responses to North Korea's warning varied greatly in terms of how the US should respond and whether the threat is crebible. Below are some of their ideas.

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Do Now #72: North Korea's Threat of Attack

April 5, 2013, 6:59 pm • Posted by Matthew Williams
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PBS NewsHour

PBS NewsHour

To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDEdspace and end it with #KQEDDoNow

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Do Now

How do you think the U.S. should respond to North Korea's threat to deploy nuclear weapons on its neighbors and even the United States? Why? Is this a credible threat?

Introduction

In recent years, North Korea has made several threats to develop and deploy nuclear weapons on countries like South Korea, Japan, and even the United States. These type of threats were never met with major concern as it seemed clear that North Korea was not close to building weapons grade nuclear materials nor had the capability to fire long range missiles outside its border. Well, things have changed.

Now, it seems that North Korea is much closer to reaching the capability of deploying such weapons. All of this started when North Korea conducted new nuclear tests in February, which in turn prompted the United Nations Security Council to impose new sanctions on the North. And last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a plan to put strategic rockets on standby to be fired at the United States and its bases in the Pacific at any time.

It is unclear at the moment how serious or credible the threat is to the U.S, however, the U.S. government announced last Wednesday that it was deploying an advanced missile defense system to Guam as a precautionary measure against these threats from North Korea. The resource below provides three perspectives on the conflict. What do you think? Does this action seem necessary? Is it too passive or aggressive? How should the United States handle this very delicate situation?

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Do Now #64: Why are Drones So Controversial?

February 15, 2013, 10:10 pm • Posted by Maxine Einhorn
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photo by jamesdale/flickr

photo by jamesdale/flickr

To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDEdspace and end it with #KQEDDoNow

For more info on how to use Twitter, click here.

Do Now

How do you feel about drones? Should they or shouldn’t they be used? Should there be rules about exactly how they can be used? Please explain.

Introduction

Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles or unmanned aerial systems which have become controversial weapons of war - a controversy that extends beyond military uses of drones to target suspected terrorists. On NPR last week, New York Times reporter Scott Shane explained that the administration’s drone program is kept under the radar because to make it public could threaten national security.

Shane describes what really interests him "is how are we using a new military technology in countries where we're not at war to kill suspected terrorists? …What are the long-term consequences? Is this the way we'll be dealing with multiple problems perhaps even beyond terrorism in the future? ….”

The concern is that these weapons are changing the way America thinks about war. America has set a precedent by sending drones over sovereign borders to kill enemies, in some cases killing innocent people including American citizens in the cause of defending the US against enemies, especially Al Qaeda and all terrorists. The issue here is that the US is not at war with these countries, but sees the killing of American citizens on foreign territory as part of a counterterrorism offensive.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, about 2,500 people have been killed in drone strikes by the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military since President Obama took office. And the program is expanding. 10 years ago, the Pentagon had about 50 drones; now there are 7,000 drones which range in size from large, Predator drones (costing $5 million or so) carrying laser-guided bombs, to tiny Hummingbirds, devices the size of insects and birds.

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Do Now Round Up: Syria Internet Shutdown

December 14, 2012, 8:20 am • Posted by Matthew Williams
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On Thursday, November 29, Internet and cell phone service throughout almost all of Syria was shut down. The service disruption continued through Friday, forcing an airport closure. The Syrian government has been widely suspected of disabling service, although President Bashar al-Assad, claimed that it was "terrorists" cut the cable. The shutdown marks another chapter in Syria's bloody, ongoing civil war, which began in March 2011, in the midst of the Arab Spring. Rebels attempting to overthrow the county's authoritarian government, have routinely used social media on the Web to communicate with each other and send images of the war to the rest of the world in an effort to highlight the military's attacks on civilians.

For our weekly KQED Do Now, students responded to the question, "If Internet service was suddenly shut down in the U.S., in what ways would it most impact your life." Read their responses below.

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In the Gallery with Sandow Birk

March 28, 2012, 7:45 am • Posted by Kristin Farr
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"American Qur'an - Sura 25" (detail) by Sandow Birk

Sandow Birk was featured on KQED's Spark when he was making paintings about an imagined war between Northern and Southern California. He was also making a film based on Dante's Inferno that starred handmade puppets. Since making the movie, Birk has been busy in his studio, working with different mediums and themes to create his highly-charged works, which sometimes comment on politicized events we hear about in the news such as the war in Iraq.

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