Comparative essay

Purpose: to compare and contrast the World War I, World War II and American Civil War

Audience: someone who does not know the differances between the two wars

Contrast and Contrast: Technology and Tactics

Tech: Boats, planes and guns

Tactics: Recon, Infantry, Artillery

Purpose: inform the reader

Final Draft

Chris Mayne

September 8, 2010

EN101-5

Dr. Ken Kerr

WAR

In the headlines recently was President Obama’s decision to pull our troops out of Iraq and end the war on terrorism in that area. This starts to put the thought of war back into our minds and raises some questions. War is an event that every civilization goes through. It is a natural process that occurs between a multitude of species but the most relevant of these are the wars between humans, for well, that is our species. The questions we start to ask are, is the fighting we do today more brutal then how we fought before?  How have the tactics changed?  And can we ever solve conflicts without wars?

            Wars were originally started as battles between different tribes and mainly consisted of raids.       Most societies through history, 90 to 95%, according to Lawrence H. Keeley of the University of Illinois, have had a form of war and battles in their history. So most societies go through what we call war. But also according to Keeley, the battles long ago were much more brutal and violent then what we experience during our modern day wars. Keeley also states the tribal wars were 20 times more deadly than our modern day warfare.  For instance, the battle lost by the Mohave-Yuma tribe in 1857 had a loss of 49.6% but a great battle fought by the Aztec in 1478 had a loss of 87.1% and the raid of the Blackfoot tribe on the Assiniboine had a 100% casualty rate. As you can tell by these fights the battles got progressively more brutal as time went on.  Even though technology increased during this time, the battles got less violent and less deadly to those who fought.

            The tactics of war have changed just as greatly as the technology has.  In early civilization war was started with spears and knives thus it was very violent and fighting took place in close quarters.  The invention of black powder by the Chinese changed the face of warfare completely. Black powder for warfare allowed you to fight over greater distances. But with the advancement of technology over the next thousands of years, developments in technology allowed you to shoot projectiles and kill from increasing distances. The tactics of wars have also changed. We no longer base our fighting off of raids and hand to hand combat we now focus more on distance tactics and non-face to face combat. We are worried about trying to prevent a World War III. The United States has agencies in order to protect us from outside threats like the CIA, NSA and the Department of Defense. Their job is to protect America from the outbreak of WW III.   Albert Einstein has even been quoted saying "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."( NAPF - Albert Einstein: Man of Imagination).This is saying that after the invention of the nuclear weapon he and most of the world was concerned about a nuclear war and that if it occurred we would end up in the Stone Age again. This fear helped spur the movement towards a more peaceful way to solve conflicts.

            Can we ever solve conflicts without wars?  Do we have to fight?  This is a question being posed to the current population. Can we solve problems without war or the loss of lives? During World War II, an organization was designed to stop the use of war and to be a place where countries could talk about their issues and controversies. This organization is called the United Nations (UN) and was first put in place by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (History of the UN).  Even with organizations like this, our world still continues to fight. But the frequency does appear to have decreased. But according to the International Development and Conflict Managements “Peace and Conflict” studies, show the overall decline of conflicts have stalled.  So it appears that the United Nations has worked but only to a certain degree.

            War is a part of human history that will be studied and remembered forever. It is very important to our future as well. As a famous quote says “if you do not learn from history you are doomed to repeat it”.  So our schools will always teach history and war because we do not want to repeat the misfortunes and deaths that we have experienced throughout history.  War is a part of human history. The tactics may have changed and the technology has changed but we will always have the threat of another war.

Works Cited

"CIDCM | Peace and Conflict 2010." CIDCM | Home. Web. 13 Sept. 2010. <http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/pc/>.

"History of the UN." Welcome to the United Nations: It's Your World. United Nations. Web. 13 Sept. 2010. <http://www.un.org/aboutun/history.htm>.

Keeley, Lawrence H. "Review: War Before Civilization." Entropy. 6 Sept. 2006. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. <http://brneurosci.org/reviews/war.html>.

"NAPF - Albert Einstein: Man of Imagination." Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Web. 14 Sept. 2010. <http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/action/urgent-actions/einstein/>.

            

Topic Paragraph

This needs to be cleaned up but its my start

    War is an event that every civilization goes through. It is a natural process that occurs between multitudes of species but the most relevant of these are the wars between humans, for well that is our species. Wars began a long time ago and progressively got bigger, the way they have been fought is changed and can we ever solve conflicts without wars.

war

What is war?
What are the resons we fight?
Is there a better more peaceful way to resolve problems?
What are the most deadly wars in history?