Why did the United States invade Iraq Term Paper

Why did the United States invade Iraq - Term Paper Example Therefore if a state functions within its own territories in a way that causes massive violations of these essential principles like manufacturing weapons of mass destructions or carrying out activities like genocide, then it is indeed a potential threat to the world community. The maxim â€Å"injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere† is very relevant here. The world has become a small global village wherein we are so interconnected that the act of one will affect another directly or indirectly. Actions of each and every state are now a matter of concern and should be closely scrutinized to prevent an era of disharmony leading to a situation like that of world wars. In the decades following the horrors of World War II and the genocide of European Jews, the world community was shocked and UN spurred by these terrible crimes demonstrated the renewed political will of bringing together the nations to combat any such threat to world peace and welfare in future. It has now become a general principle accepted both in  law  and practice that imperialism and foreign invasion were antithetical to the right of self-determination, which was understood to be the basis of the post-World War II worldwide  order. In the light of above mentioned principles of international law and its protected principles, an attempt has been made here to study the reason and legality of US’s attack on Iraq on various ground. ... We are still in a speculation mode regarding why exactly USA invaded Iraq; whether the motive was to actually disarm them of any weapons of mass destruction or was it because Bush administration eyed the oil wells of Iraq. In the era where the international values are â€Å"peace, security and the well being of the world†, it is not at all acceptable that a country wage war on another country for selfish ulterior motives, under the garb of protecting the noble principles of international law. Thus there is no denying the fact that there is an utmost urgency to probe into the reasons of such invasions. The USA’s invasion was criticized as illegal war legalized by misusing the international principles. If this is true then we are facing a very imminent threat posed by the developed countries to developing countries and this war will act as a bad international precedent for the same. Hence the actual reason behind the invasion of Iraq is a million dollar question. HISTORIC AL PERSPECTIVE USA and its allies attacked Iraq under the pretext that Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction and it was likely that he would pass along those arms to al Qaeda. However the validity of such a ground was later found to be highly diluted. Experts thereafter postulated that we cannot all together rule out the possibility that this war was the outcome of enigmatic psychology of bush, particularly with respect to his relationship with his father along with the irresistible temptation of getting a strong hold over the prized Mesopotamian oil fields. Possibly he sought to "finish the job" that his father had begun in 1991 or may be to avenge Hussein who was alleged to have made attempts to

Strategies for Wastewater Treatment Processes

Strategies for Wastewater Treatment Processes Some wastewater treatment process in other hand classified into three categories which followed the nature of the treatment process that used nowadays, they are physical, chemical and biological treatment processes. Most of the full wastewater treatments systems are included several processes from these three categories. Physical methods wastewater treatment is the process that totally relay on physical phenomena only in progress of improving and treating the wastewater. In this method, there are no any gross chemical or biological changes needed to carry out. Some examples like sedimentation or called clarification, screening, aeration, filtration, flotation and skimming, degasification, equalization are classified as the physical method for wastewater treatment. Take sedimentation process for further explanations, it is a process where the solids is settle by gravity in order to carry out the process. This process is carry out by collecting the wastewater in a short period of time, the collected wastewater was stored in a tank that is under quiescent conditions, which then slowly let the heavier solids to settle and those â€Å"clarified† effluent is also remove at the same time. Sedimentation process is very common process used for solid separation nowadays, and it is already set up to be u sed in the beginning and end of the full wastewater treatment operation which is what we have now. Sedimentation is already a physical treatment that cannot be excluded in order to successfully carry out the wastewater treatment. Another common process that also under the physical treatment category is the aeration, which is a process by just physically add some air into wastewater, gas that often used is oxygen. The process is to allow the oxygen exchange at the surface, eventually lead to the release of noxious gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane and hydrogen sulfide gas from the water. Filtration is also another common physical phenomena treatment, this treatment require a filter medium to separate the solids from the wastewater, filter medium like sand filters can continue removed the entrained from the wastewater used. Some physical phenomena will take part in sedimentation process; this will affect the water quality in the good way. Substance like greases or oils can be applying the flotation technique, skimming, or physically removing in order to separate from the wastewater. For some industrial management wastewater treatment, they will create strong and undesirable waste in just a little time needed. These wastes have the ability in destroy biological treatment process. So the wastes were kept to remained in the wastewater system, or has mixed with other waste, and eventually release to the environment, which will cause eliminating â€Å"shocks† to the treatment plant. Such process called equalization. There is another type of equalization, which is when the wet well of a pump station will collect many types of wastewater and then follow with the step that pump those wastes onward at constant rates. Second category is the chemical treatment process, physical treatments rely on physical phenomena, and so chemical treatment is depending on certain chemical reaction in order to improve the water quality. The examples of chemical wastewater treatment are chlorination, ozonation, neutralization, coagulation, adsorption, and ion exchange. Among all these chemical treatment, the most famous and common one is the chlorination. Chlorination process is the using of chlorine to kill bacteria and also to slow down the rate of the wastewater to decompose. Chlorine is being chosen because of its strong oxidizing properties. Bacterial can be successfully eliminated from the wasterwater when there is vital biological process occurred which caused by the chlorine added. There is an alternative way to replace the chlorination, which is by using the ozone to undergo ozonation. Ozone is also a common strong oxidizing agent that chose to carry out oxidizing disinfectant other than chlorine. Besides using chemical to undergo oxidation, industrial wastewater treatment commonly applies neutralization. Water is commonly known that it is at pH value of 7, the neutral state. So if the water is too acid, there will have the need to add selective base to adjust back the neutrality of the wastewater. In other hand, same goes to if the water is too basic, acid is needed to add to the wastewater to adjust back the pH value. This technique is called the neutralization. Another common chemical wastewater treatment is the coagulation. This process is about to add some chemical into the wastewater, which will cause some reaction to be occurred. The chemical added will react with the substance inside the wastewater and then form insoluble end product, thus these end product can be easily removed in order to produce clean water. The example of chemicals that used for coagulation process are polyvalent metals, limestone, iron binding compounds like FeSO4 and FeCl2 or FeCl3, and last is t he alum, Al2(SO4)3. Some chemical treatment actually is the combination of chemical and physical processes. The nature of the process is come from both chemical and physical. One of the example is the using the activated carbon to extract or remove the organic substance in the wastewater. For ion exchange process, this process is least applied in the wastewater treatment nowadays. The ion exchange process is actually added some chemical in order to exchange certain ion in the wastewater only, this process is not help a lot in the field of wastewater treatment and the process is slow. The last category that needs to discuss is the biological wastewater treatment. Biological process in wastewater treatment is related to apply biology field substance, such as microorganisms in order to produce the clean water. There are many microorganisms but the most used in biochemical decomposition of wastewater is the bacteria, the purpose of the bacteria is to stabilize the end products. If there are still many other microorganisms are present, or even the sludge, they will be converted to carbon dioxide gas, water and some side product by the treatment method. The major groups of biological wastewater treatment have two main events, one is aerobic method and the other is the anaerobic method, the different between these two processes is the present of dissolved oxygen. Under aerobic method there have several examples, such as: activated sludge treatment methods, trickling filtration, oxidation ponds, lagoons, and aerobic digestion, whereas for the example of anaerobic method are: anaerobic digestion, septic tanks, and lagoons. The main purpose of a wastewater treatment is to remove those solid substances in the water, in order to have a good condition and clean water to be used in our daily life. Most solid is the primarily organic substance, at this instant there will eventually have some inorganic solid being filter out also along with the organic substances. The treatment also need a enhance function to help remove the sludge in the water also. Before the treatment process come to the end, some addition work need to carry out to control the odors of the water, one more is retard the biological activity in order to destroy those pathogenic organisms that still remained in the wastewater. The actual full wastewater treatment as mention before, it will have the combination of physical, chemical and biological methods, so the devices need to be used will also widely cover these three fields, where the degree of a treatment mainly named using the terms primary, secondary and tertiary treatment.

Hamlets To Be Or Not To Be :: essays research papers

To be or Not to be   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “To be or not to be, that is the question.'; Hamlet is eager to escape a life of calamity and disaster. He sees his life as a terrible burden, something he yearns to escape. The problem, however, is that death brings one into territory uncharted by t se still alive. It is not death that he fears for he perceives death as a release; the problem is death through suicide. Hamlet makes a philosophical approach to the question of whether or not it is nobler to endure life’s hardships or overcome pain an agony. Despite the fact that life can be treacherous, Hamlet foregoes suicide because the afterlife may be worse if a person takes his own life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hamlet also talks about life long suicide, doing nothing and allowing life to pass by. Hamlet feels as if he has resorted to this passive mode. He suffers guilt from standing by and allowing Claudius to live. Hamlet feels as if he is too gutless to t e the king’s life until he has gathered all of the facts and the right opportunity arises. Hamlet is being extremely hard on himself . It is only human nature to feel nerveless when one is unable to take action. He must realize that he is not being c ardly, but smart to wait and take decisive action.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Evidence shows that Hamlet feels life is a burden yet Hamlet still remains tranquil as he soliloquizes. The perfect iambic pentameter of Shakespeare gives this passage a sense of fluidity in contrast with the whirlpool of emotions in other soliloquies Words such as suffer, troubles, dies, sleep, heartache, calamity, and weary, depict depression as Hamlet is a very low-spirited and depressed man. There are also images that are tools of destruction: slings, arrows, arms, and whips. Shakespeare’s c eful use of words and structure displays Hamlet’s ideas successfully.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If one chooses to take the path of suicide as a result of an unfortunate life, the afterlife has the potential to be worse.

Moral Obligations about Charity views of Peter Singer and John Arthur Essay

The fact that we can afford to provide for ourselves even beyond our basic needs bring an important question. Is it then our duty to provide financial assistance to those who do not have enough to provide for their own basic needs? Peter Singer, in his piece, â€Å"Famine, Affluence, and Morality† would argue that we ought to prevent bad things from happening without sacrificing something of equal importance. Here is the argument Peter Singer presents to us in standard form 1) Millions of people are suffering from hunger every day. 2) Suffering and death from hunger is bad. 3) If it is within our power to prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought to morally do so. 4) It is within the power of affluent people to prevent hunger by sacrificing only their luxuries, which are of lesser moral importance. However, John Arthur disagrees with Singer’s conclusion in his piece, â€Å"World Hunger and Moral Obligation: The Case against Singer† and believes that although we should help those in need, it is not imperative to do so. John Arthur’s argument in basic form looks like this: 1) Singer says that all affluent people have a moral obligation to give their money to poor people to the extent that the affluent person would be on the same level as the poor person. 2) Poor people have no positive right to our assistance, because affluent people made no contract to do so. 3) Affluent people have a negative right to their property, which weighs against their obligation. Therefore, the obligation that Singer imposes on affluent people is not as extensive as Arthur. I will analyze both sides of this argument and in the end, propose my own position on this subject. Singer’s main point as stated above is that we ought to prevent bad things from happening without having to sacrifice something of equal importance. In other words, we should give to those in poverty as long as we do not put ourselves in a position of poverty. Singer starts his argument by making the assumption that it is a bad thing when people suffer and die from the lack of food and shelter. Since this is a bad thing, we ought to do something in order to prevent these things from happening without sacrificing anything of equal moral importance to ourselves. This point essentially puts the responsibility of the well-being of all people who are in some way suffering from lack of food and shelter into the hands of those who are in a position to do something about it. The fact that it is now our responsibility makes it morally wrong to not care for these people with our financial assistance. Singer does not see the act of giving money in order to prevent something bad from happening as charity, but instead as our duty. With charity comes the moral option to not give and to spend money on luxuries. If giving to prevent bad things from happening is something that we ought to do, to not do it would be wrong. Money that would have been spent on luxuries should be sent to parts of the world that need it on the basis of their lack of food, shelter, and adequate clothing. On the other hand, John Arthur brings up a strong argument against Singer. Arthur contests that a person has a right to do with their money as they please. There is no contract between ourselves and those in need, therefore we are entitled to invoke our own rights as a justification for not giving to those in need. The interesting thing about this argument is that Arthur is not saying that it is a good thing that we ignore the needs of others, but is instead saying that we have to right to not give. Arthur thinks that we are expected to give to those in need, but we also have the right to invoke our own rights of not giving to those in need. Arthur argues that if we were to live by Singer’s moral standards by following â€Å"greater moral evil rule† then we should not only give monetary charity but also give to the extent of donating parts of our bodies to help someone from dying. He says this because if you can survive without a certain body part (like a kidney) then according to Singer you should give it to someone to save their life because the kidney is less significant than a person dying  (Arthur 473). Arthur does not agree with this idea he sees this as a person violating our negative rights to property, protesting, that it’s your body, and you have a right to it, outweighs any duty you have to help. Both Arthur and Singer agree that there are millions of people suffering from hunger everyday and that this suffering causing death is a bad thing. However Singer believes that it is our moral duty to assist the poor not a choice to do so. While Arthur believes that although we should help those in need, it is not required of us to do so. Therefore the obligation that Singer imposes on people is not as extensive as that of Arthur. As a moral person, one is morally obligated to act in a way which will bring about the greatest happiness. Whether that action is positive or negative doesn’t matter to the pain or pleasure that is produced. No distinction is necessary to the morality of the action. Pain and pleasure are still the measure of moral significance that are used to judge whether a given charity is good or bad. Then the given rules of charity are used to judge the morality of an individual’s acts of charity. Arthur argues that duty to help a stranger in need would be some sort of positive right such as an agreement or contract. However when it comes to assisting in the world hunger situation there are no such agreements or contracts between flourishing countries to assist non flourishing countries. Arthur is correct in arguing that there is something more in the terms of Singer’s argument in the case about the drowning child that if we are able to prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing something of moral significance then we have the moral duty to do it. With the example of the drowning child in the shallow pond, even though we might get our clothes muddy if we were to save the child. As a consequence, like this child case, people have an obligation to rescue strangers when they have the ability to do so that it is our moral duty to do something. Arthur argues the point that these rights as well as deserts are important parts of our moral code based on values such as fairness, justice, and respect. From Arthur’s point of view, there are two significant human rights which are â€Å"negative rights† and â€Å"positive rights†. â€Å"Negative rights†, â€Å"rights of noninterference† (473) in another word, are rights not to be interfered by  anyone such as a right not to be killed. The other rights which are also ignored are â€Å"positive rights† same as called â€Å"rights of percipience† These rights are based on agreements. As long as people have an agreement something, they have a right to receive it. In addition to rights, desert is a second form of entitlement. As an example, a hard working farmer is able to harvest a lot of wheat as a result of his great effort. On the other hand, a lazy farmer is starving because of his laziness. In this case, the hard working farmer should not have any obligation to give wheat to the lazy farmer. Thus, the farmer should consider â€Å"fairness, justice, and respect.† (474). In this case is the farmer who worked hard be obligated to give some of his harvest to the farmer who didn’t do anything to secure a harvest to provi de for him and his family. Looking at Singer’s view on charity makes me wonder, He believes that as citizens of affluent countries we are morally obligated to donate most of our wealth to the starving poor of countries unable to provide for their own with their basic needs to survive like food, shelter and adequate clothing. That theory sounds great, however I have a problem with the fact that are focusing on the welfare of the struggling poor in other countries, while we ignore the suffering of our own right here in our backyard. Yes, I said the United States of America should take care of its own first. Before we spend our precious dollars taking care of the rest of the world. Let me say I cannot fathom a world as progressive as ours and yet people are still starving and dying right here in our own backyard. But it is a reality. Billions of dollars are given to aid so many other countries. While less and less is used here to provide relief for our own who are suffering. So, what is my point you say, my point is we spend a lot of money taking care of people around the world. As a society we are generous. Everyday I listen to politicians and others pointing fingers at each other playing the blame game for our economic crisis. Blaming the Republicans, or blaming the Democrats, Blaming the rich or poor, but the fact is all the blame in the world isn’t fixing the problem. Seeing all the dollar amounts being used to fund all these different relief efforts worldwide is simply amazing. But just think how far those dollars would go if they were to keep them here in the United States and use them to help keep a family member or a neighbor from losing  their home or life. Why are we providing billions of dollars in scholarship aid to foreign students when graduates of our own high schools can’t afford a college education? Why are our religious organizations donati ng billions of dollars to provide health care and literacy programs to foreign countries when our own kids are on Medicaid and illiterate? How much money would go back into restoring our own economy and helping citizens of the United States of America if we kept our money here? Will become the nation known for letting its own people suffer while we take care of the suffering in other countries. Will we keep playing the blame game and turn our backs to the pain and suffering of the people on our own soil. If so, maybe we should change our name to â€Å"The United States Charitable Citizens for the Rest of the World.†

Aloha Case Essay

1. What should be Aloha’s competitive strategy? Low cost? It is difficult for Aloha to compete with the industry giants like Nestle, P&G and Phillips Morris on low cost. The reason is simple – volume. These industry giants have much higher volume than Aloha and enjoy a tremendous advantage in economies of scale. It is probably suicidal for Aloha to try to adopt a low cost strategy. It will probably be crushed like an ant, unless the giants play â€Å"oligopolists† and charge high prices to maximize profits. Differentiation; i.e., selling gourmet coffee a la. Starbuck? It is probably easier for Aloha to position itself as a gourmet coffee maker, catering to the yuppie type and charging a premium price for a coffee experience different from that offered by â€Å"regular† brands. Differentiation seems to be the choice strategy for small companies in that its success does not rely on size or volume; anyone with little resources but a great idea can be the David that slays the industry Goliaths. Examples abound: Ben & Jerry in ice cream and Paul Newman in spaghetti source. In fact, while the case tells us little in this regard, I suspect that Aloha has been able to survive in this competitive industry for all these years and seems to be thriving entirely because it started out occupying a special market niche and positioning its coffee as a gourmet brand. 2. How should the roasting plants, and marketing and purchasing departments be evaluated? Roasting Plants Given the differentiation strategy, the roasting plants should be treated as a profit center, as it is already now. That is because the differentiation strategy can be successfully implemented only if the quality of the coffee lives up to its image as a gourmet brand, and evaluating plant managers on profit, rather on cost alone, motivates the managers to constantly improve the quality of the coffee and maintain it at high levels. In contrast with plant managers evaluated on cost alone, plant managers evaluated on profit are penalized if they sacrifice quality on the altar of cost minimization; when quality declines, so will revenue and profit. On the other hand, if Aloha pursues a low cost strategy, then the plant managers should be evaluated on cost control alone. For a firm adopting a low cost strategy, volume is the king in order to achieve economies of scale and the customers targeted are less conscious of the quality of the coffee brands they drink. Thus, keeping cost down would be the primary objective for the plant managers. Marketing Department Since Aloha positions itself as a gourmet coffee maker, the objective for the marketing department is to keep both the price and gross margins high. Volume would not be very important as the firm knows that it only appeals to a limited group of coffee connoisseurs. Thus, the marketing department should be treated as a revenue center and annual evaluation of its performance should be based on a comparison of actual prices with target prices. Alternatively, marketing could be treated as a â€Å"pseudo† profit center with its â€Å"profit† defined as sales minus standard cost of coffee sold. If a low cost strategy is pursued, then the marketing department should be treated as a revenue center as well. But the focus now is on volume, or more precisely, volume growth. Thus, the marketing manager and his lieutenants should be constantly reminded of the importance of sales growth over time and be rewarded for good sales growth. Purchasing Department The purchasing department currently purchases coffee on both the spot and forwards markets. The policy is to make purchase commitments (forward contracts) based on maximum potential plant requirements and sell the rest on the spot market. That sounds like speculation. One may argue Aloha should meet its need for coffee beans only on the spot market and refrain from the speculation business, which is distracting attention from is main business – grinding and selling gourmet coffee. A counter argument is that good coffee traders probably can spot market trends others cannot and are able to reduce the cost of coffee beans by purchasing forward contracts. I question that argument because it is doubtful that any market participants can â€Å"beat the market† and consistently purchase coffee beans on the forwards market at a lower cost than on the spot market. One drawback of the policy of buying forward contracts is it allows the purchasing department to transfer the most costly coffee beans to the plants and make the plants shoulder losses from their trading mistakes. Buying on the spot markets means that the purchased amount is equal to the need of the plants for coffee beans, and thus the purchasing department would not be able to burden the plants with high-cost beans and keep low-cost beans for themselves to boost trading profit. If the purchasing department is forbidden to play the forwards market, performance evaluation for the department is easy. It would be treated as a cost center, and the cost it incurs for coffee bean purchases will be compared with market price averages in the periods that the purchases take place.