U.S. counterinsurgency operations in Cuba and the Philippines Essay Example for Free

U.S. counterinsurgency operations in Cuba and the Philippines Essay In January 2002, The United States Special Operation Commands, Pacific (SOCPAC) took on an arduous task of assisting the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) with a specific mission for ousting the terrorists forces of Al Qaida, Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf Group(ASG) and to carry the humanitarian operations in the islands of Basilan which was considered as the most dangerous place. The United States Special Forces (SP) unit along with the specially equipped forces and scout rangers of the AFP formed the Light Reaction Company. This Light Reaction Company along with the SOCPAC were deployed at Basilan with the sole motive to reject the ASG sanctuary, undergo surveillance on the key positions, support the villagers, conduct regular training to boost the morale of the AFP and support the strike forces of AFP and assist in the civil affairs operations. This was the part of the Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines (OEF-P). In this operation, 350 operating personal were deployed and other 750 were providing logistics support to the headquarters in Zamboanga on Mindanao. The main purpose of the Mission was to help AFP in curbing the stronghold of Abu Sayyaf and as a result, the declared members of the Abu Sayyaf group reduced to 80 from 700. Another project that took place was Operation Smiles, a program to give medical aid to the local civilians of Basilan where the intensive fighting was taking place. The result of this operation was the establishment of 14 Schools, seven clinics, three hospitals and more than 20 fresh wells. Fighting again resumed in 2005 and 2006 between the government forces and the Abu Sayyaf group who was aligned with the New People’s army. By the end of 2006, hundreds of guerillas and soldiers were killed, and NPA was left with 7,000 fighters whereas Abu Sayyaf with 2,000. United States took up a different approach in Cuba by interfering in their internal private affairs. When the United States felt threatened by the Cuban revolution in 1959 and rise of communism under Fidel Castro, they formed a special committee to launch an attack on Cuba. They faced the danger of the coercion of the communist parties in Cuba that they would unleash their communist movements in America. They formulated the plan to infuse the anti-regime spirit and overthrow the government. They made thirty different plans to over throw the government and disrupt their economy. Among these were included the use of American Green Berrets, destruction of their sugar crops and mining of harbors. To overcome the crises, Cuba began to establish the trade relationships with Soviet Union. On April 17, 1961, United States conducted air strikes across the island to eliminate the Cuban air force, and enabling the Brigade 2506 to have a complete control over the island much before their actual landing at the Bay of Pigs. This failed because the invasions were not conducted as planned and Fidel Castro even resisted an armed invasion of 1,500 CIA trained Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs. This was another excuse for America to increase their propaganda against the Cuban government. In 1962 Operation North wood, plan was initiated with the intention to use false flag as an excuse to attack Cuba. Every month since 1962 there was one plan or the other to destabilize the communist regime either in the form of publishing views against Castro, equiping militant opposition groups with armaments, helping them in establishing guerilla bases and preparing them for their military interventions in Cuba in October. Many of the plans were devised by the CIA with the sole purpose to assassinate Fidel Castro which included the use of hair removal powder to fall the Castros beard, a poisoned wetsuit, the exploding cigars and the placing of explosive seashells in Castros favorite places including the place where he used to go for diving. This project was originally decided to put into action in October 1962 with an open revolt and ultimately to the overthrow the Communist regime. This action was planned when the Cuba was at the peak of the Cuban Missile crisis due to the Soviet Unions’s presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, and could have led to the nuclear war between Soviet Union and United States. Therefore on 30th October the operation was suspended, but they had already deployed three of ten six-man sabotage teams in Cuba. One team infact was successful in blowing Cuban industrial facility on 8th November, 1962. This whole Cuban Project was known as Operation Mongoose. United States broke all the diplomatic relations with Cuba and imposed sanctions against it in 1962. The relationship between the two nations improved in 2000-2001 but again deteriorated when George W Bush came to power. Bush termed Cuba as an outpost of tyranny and his undersecretary to the U. S. State Department John R. Bolton levied accusations against Cuba of keeping and maintaing bioweapons program. Bolton even declared that Cuban leader had visited US enemy countries like Libya, Iran and Syria. Cuba was also declared as a State Sponsor of Terror by the United States department of State but Cuban government in turn accuses America for sponsoring terrorism against Cuba. Thus American Government again started their activities towards overthrowing the Cuban government and through the media propagated against the government to the extent that the opposition parties, supporting United States in Havana started displaying messages on a scrolling â€Å"electronic billboard† and to counter these Cuban government constructed large number of poles, carrying black flags with white stars, to obstruct these messages. On 12th September, 2006, the United States formed five interagency working groups to monitor Cuba and to carry their policies. These groups were set up quitely in War like rooms. According to the U. S. officials, three of these created groups; diplomatic actions; strategic communications and democratic promotion are headed by the State Department. One more group which coordinated humanitarian aid to Cuba is run by the Commerce Department, and the fifth group tackles migration issues, is being run jointly by the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security. These prcocess is being undertaken to restore democracy. Thus the counter insurgency operations with Philippines was to help the Philippine regime to crush the terrorists activities of the Al Qaida, Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf Group(ASF) whereas the United States Policy towards Cuba was to eliminate the Communist regime by supporting the opposition parties and to counter the Russia’s missiles in Cuba. United States Counter Insurgency operations in Philippines were over and all successful, and the reasons behind these successful efforts were the comprehensive operations, adopting strategy of attacking the enemys line of attacks and disrupting their alliances and this was achieved by strengthening the Philippine government institutions and local security so that the daily lives of the people can move on smoothly. The measures were also undertaken for civic development to provide necessary amenities to its population. These operations being carried out in Basilan led to the ousting of the ASG from the island simply because they lost the support of the population and lost the combat operations as well as bases. But, there were certain strategic errors that led to again the emergence of ASG who â€Å"Lived to fight another day with the sole help from the JI and MILF. The ASG is again rising on the southern islands of Jolo and Tawi Tawi where Forces of the United States are not allowed to give assistance to AFP. This situation arises due to the certain strategic errors by the United States. The first strategic error was inability of the OEF-P, American leaders to fruitfully understand their own forces. They could not understand the basic traits of SF in an arena of employment and their capabilities to take out the combat advisory mission during unconventional warfare. Instead of fully understanding the situation, combatant commander and the Secretary of Defense imposed restrictions on SF soldiers. Over and above, the restrictions were also imposed on these SF advisers to operate at battalion level with their AFP counterparts but were not disallowed to operate at lower tactical echelons. U. S. leaders at the highest levels also could not able to comprehend fully the unconventional warfare. This led to the second strategic error and that is over-reliance on technical reconnaissance assets. The Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the Navys P3 Orion began to be used for locating the ASG and the hostages on Basilan. These they used again for protection minimizing the risks to U. S. personnel. These though reduced the patrolling in remote areas, but this kind of surveillance was unconventional, and the forces on the ground were not allowed to use these reconnaissance assets. The third reason cited because of the prohibition of the U. S. leaders to assist the SF units because the negotiations were going on between the AFP and MILF, so forces were removed from MILF and because AFP was desperate to take the advice and assistance from U. S. Military, AFP troops were shifted from MILF-controlled areas. This led to the creation of de facto ASG sanctuaries giving boost to the ASG and MILF strong relationship. Many people staying in the area are also the members of these two organizations. (Tzu Sun, May-June 2004). The United States strategy in Cuba did not get desired results. The CIA wrote an internal report that blamed the internal incompetence on failure. The administration thought that the troops could retreat to mountains and conduct guerrilla war if they lost in open battle. But they did not realize that the troops could not reach the mountains by foot. The second reason was that the troops were deployed in swampland, where they were easily surrounded. The third biggest fault was their thinking that Cubans would be great full to them to give them liberation from Fidel Castro and would join in the battle, but the Americans could not gain the support of the population. It was basically due to the agencys weak positions on the ground in Cuba. CIA’s witnessed the mass support of Castro and those who were against the Castro were rounded and arrested by him. (Bay of Pigs invasion, encyclopedia) Looking at these failures and strategies the soldiers in order to win the war against terrorism first of all should analyze the ground situation where the war is to be fought, take the local population into confidence, never underestimate the enemies, and use the reconnaissance assets at the appropriate situation and at the appropriate moment. WORKS CITED 1. Bay of Pigs Invasion All Experts: Encyclopedia Retrieved April 5, 2007 from the World Wide Web: http://en. allexperts. com/e/b/ba/bay_of_pigs_invasion. htm 2. Maxwell S. David (May-June 2004) Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines: What Would Sun Tzu Say? The U. S. Army Professional Writing Collection Retrieved April 5, 2007 from the World Wide Web: http://www. army. mil/professionalwriting/volumes/volume2/june_2004/6_04_3. html

Native American Essay -- essays research papers

From as early as the time of the early European settlers, Native Americans have suffered tremendously. Native Americans during the time of the early settlers where treated very badly. Europeans did what they wanted with the Native Americans, and when a group of Native Americans would stand up for themselves, the European would quickly put them down. The Native Americans bow and arrows where no match for the Europeans guns and cannon balls. When the Europeans guns didn’t work for the Europeans, the disease they bought killed the Native Americans even more effectively. In a poem by Louise Enrich called Dear John Wayne a line from a cowboy and Indian movie states the position of many European settlers in the Americas "Everything we see belongs to us". Native Americans did not like the way they were being treated. Every generation that passes, there would be fewer and fewer Native Americans around the Americas. Native Americans were dying like flies flying around bug spray mist. If it were not a war (The French and Indian war) that were killing them off it would be European disease (Cow and Small pox). The Native Americans saw what the Europeans were doing to their lives, they wanted their old way of life, and they wanted the Europeans to go away. In the movie Smoke Signals a line that was said by a character called Arnold Joseph represents the feelings of the Native Americans "Poof! The white people are gone". The Eur...

Film and Photographic Equipment Essay

As of the time of the case, 2007, although IMAX was involved in three different industries, the case suggests that it was primarily in Photographic Equipment and Supplier industry primarily because about 51 per cent of its total revenue of IMAX was system sale. Therefore, the following analysis will focus on that industry. Bargaining Power of Suppliers Major suppliers of photographic equipment and supplier industry may include manufacturers producing relevant components of any kind of equipment, contractors making the complete equipment, and so forth. From my viewpoint, the suppliers’ bargaining power is low because of several reasons. First, along with the development of photographically relevant equipment, although the products firms provide are technically concentrated, there are certain standards recognized and adopted, such as film size of 35 mm or certain sizes of lens filter, in the industry. Therefore, the switching cost for their buyers is low. Second, photographic equipment and supplier industry is an important customer to its supplier group. Specifically, the usage of the products that the supplier group provides is limited to machinery or equipment in other industries. Besides, although there are few substitute products, which situation generally increases supplier group’s bargaining power, firms in photographic equipment and supplier industry still can easily find other manufacturers with lower cost. Bargaining Power of Buyers The buyer group of photographic equipment and supplier industry is enormous, ranging from B2B buyers like motion picture production firms to B2C buyers like customers who purchase digital single lens cameras. Considering the difference of consuming difference of buyers and following reasons, the bargaining power of buyers is medium. First, sales volume varies among different segments. For example, motion movie production studios or chain multiplexes may have high bargaining power because of high purchasing volumes; on the other hand, customers who go to Staple to purchase a copy machine have little or no bargaining power. Second, the products in photographic equipment and supplier industry are generally undifferentiated because of aforementioned regular standard existing, and therefore bargaining power increases. However, exception could be that once new products are launched with attracting feature and highly accepted by buyers, such as IMAX format, the bargaining power decreases. Moreover, because of the great scope of photographic equipment, switching cost varies extremely, taking the difference between cameras shooting in IMAX digital format and little digital cameras from all brands in the market as example. Besides, backward integrations are less likely to happen compared to forward integrations from supplier group. Threat of Substitute Products In photographic equipment and supplier industry, treat of substitute is low primarily because products from this industry has been evolving for decades and has become essential goods. For instance, copy machine, also provided from the industry, has become essential equipment in firms and institutions. Although the substitute products to this example could be pens and paper, few people really would do that for efficiency concern, and therefore the switching cost is high. Intensity of Rivalry Competition in photographic equipment and supplier industry is intense for reasons. Because of the specialized nature of the products, generally exist barrier is high for big companies like Cannon, Nikon, and Xerox, and those major competitors are highly committed to the industry by providing products with advanced technology and competing against each other intensively. Although some products in the industry can differentiate themselves from others and protected by patents for a period of time, new film format from IMAX for example, once competitors foresee the great potential profitability, it is not difficult for them to produce products with similar features to split the market share. Threat of Entry From my viewpoint, the threat of entry in the industry is medium. Take multi-business electronics suppliers such as Sony and Samsung as example, they supply various lines of products and compete against each other. Even photographic equipment is not their primary selling product, supported by strong capital and experienced R&D departments, those companies are able to enter photographic equipment and supplier industry and split a piece of market share, primarily because of their existing reputation from relevant electronics industry. To deal with new coming competitors, current suppliers are less likely to have continuous price cutting battles because of high fixed costs; instead, it is more likely to increase investments, like R&D, and product lines to keep market share in every targeted segment. An obvious example is that when Sony entered digital single lens camera market with cheaper price, other major suppliers like Nikon and Cannon did not cut price on existing premium products but expanded product lines to launch cheaper products competing directly to Sony. In short, the barrier is not so high for certain new competitors to come into the industry, but because of the intense reaction from existing players, the impact and threat new comings bring in is moderate. Competitive Advantages Advanced Technology One of the competitive advantages of IMAX and the most distinguishing characteristics that differentiate the company from its competitors is its advanced and unique technology that brings new formats, and other associated system equipment like screen and projector into the industry. The key element contributes to this advantage is that the company was committed to invest in R&D. In return, the company was granted many patents that would keep the company in a unique position and from direct competition in the industry. Products Quality Control and Relationship Another IMAX’s competitive advantage is its quality control of products and system implementation. With its distinguishing technology, IMAX had been implementing the system into multiple locations, including multiplexes and education institutions, and because of its strict quality control and maintenance service, the company could maintain good relationship with diverse customers. The agreement of theatrical system implementation and service is an advantage for IMX to generate revenue not only from one-time transactions but long term profit splitting. Brand image and Product Distribution Diversity IMAX has built a unique brand image both from hardware and software perspectives and that also remains the company competitive. First, people would recognize IMAX as a prestigious theatrical system supplier based on their experience from multiple locations. Especially when major multiplex brands and education institutions carry its system, it’s very likely that people would naturally feel IMAX credible. The consequence is beneficial for IMX to expand business later, such as entering home theater system market. From the software perspective, especially the company’s educational entertainment production, not only create revenue other than just from commercial production but catch the trend of increased consumption of educational entertainment. The situation help IMAX build up a unique brand image that its production is not only commercial but educational so that people would have more trust in the company’s future motion picture production. To sum up, although IMAX has several competitive advantages, not all of them will last for too long. For instance, competitors could match up with its advances technology by inventing other formats and once they are accepted by end consumers, it will become a big threat for the company; On the other hand, some advantages could last for a long time once IMAX take good care of them. For example, the brand image being as a well motion picture production supplier is one that can remain in consumers’ minds for a long time and that’s not what new competitors can achieve in a short time. Corporate Advantages From my viewpoint, IMAX has corporate advantages because of its diverse productions from equipment supplier, motion picture production, and distribution industry. However, the most important issue is how to leverage those segments to increase the company’s growth. Business & Resources  IMAX’s core business, photographic equipment and supplier, provides capabilities to enhance all its business. The company has created competitive advantages as mentioned and those advantages enhance the company’s business across industries. For instance, for its motion picture production business, all the films are shot in new IMAX formats, film or digital, by the equipment its own supplier segment produces, it reduce huge cost for format conversion compared to other films shot in different formats y other studios. Organization Because of the narrow scope of the business, coordination among different sectors in the organization is critical for IMX. For instance, the vertical integration of the business allows the company to share resources such as instant feedbacks for its R&D department from motion picture production sector. By sharing these experience and information, the company will have the ability to forecast and adapt to new opportunities shortly in the future for every sectors in its value chain. In short, IMAX’s corporate advantages come from its competitive advantages and vertical integration. Because its business is based on unique technology and coordinated the whole value chain, it is not easy for competitors to imitate and therefore time for its corporate advantages is expected to last. Recommendations Keep Diversity of Production To answer the question that if IMAX would lose its differentiation because of numerous Hollywood films, my recommendation is that IMAX should keep doing converting Hollywood films and at the same time producing educational films. One reason is that format conversion brings good revenue for IMAX and people would be able to tell the difference between Hollywood movies in IMAX format and its own production. On the other hand, IMAX should keep catching on the trend of the increasing consumption of educational entertainment, because the company has been building up a good image distributing films in educational institutions and such would also prevent the erosion of its brand image. Not Sold to Larger Studios  Another recommendation for IMAX is that it should not be sold to a larger studio, and the main reason is that IMAX has already created its own competitive and corporate advantages and they are not easy to imitate. What IMAX should do is properly exploiting its assets, both tangible and intangible. Although the company in motion picture production industry is small and face competitors like Pixar, it should still stay on the track catching the trend by coordination and support from its other business ectors. Expanding Market & Production Diversity IMAX’s new technology is standing in a niche market without sustainable growth. Even though the company is able to keep generate great revenue from equipment sales, saturation in USA will become an issue someday. To deal with that, IMAX has to make a short term strategy doing business in USA and expand to global market, because from Exhibit 11, we can see that films generated revenue approximately two tim es overseas more as those in USA. However, for long term strategy, IMAX has to find a way to expand its business in a slow-growing market. For instance, the company can expand its product lines into home theater system because the case indicates a high usage rate of DVD, and the system is still highly relevant equipment to the current product lines. By doing so, IMAX can benefit from creating potential revenue from new sources and from keeping its brand image as a innovating company in the equipment supplier industry.

The Growth Of American Individuality - 1721 Words

The Growth of American Individuality in Relation to Self-Expression Religion is an imperfect savior. Primitive civilizations depended on religion to explain the workings of the world; they depended on gods to protect their crops and homes from disease, drought, and other disasters far out of human control. While this dependency provided comfort, it sacrificed individuality. Recent years has seen the rise of alternative forms of media: novels, digital music, movies. These were not available to previous civilizations. Early Americans only had access to the Bible, which was unreadable to the average illiterate. Newer forms of media have spurned a nation-wide reflection on the old traditions that were largely set by religion. Ever since the founding of the colonies, and ever since more diverse forms of self-expression have become more accessible, Americans have grown in individuality as they have become less dependent on religion. The Puritans were the first of the Europeans to settle in the Americas. While their traditions have left a profound mark on American culture, their strict ways are rather peculiar. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller critiques Puritan society as close-minded and obsessed about maintaining conformity. â€Å"The parochial snobbery of these people was partly responsible for their failure to convert the Indians. Probably they also preferred to take land from heathens rather than from fellow Christians† (140). The Puritans revolved their culture around religion,Show MoreRelated The Problems of Individuallity and Conformity Within a Society1688 Words   |  7 Pageswhere people come to be free from persecution and express their thoughts and opinions. This founding principle led American society to pull away from conformity and pushes for individuality. Many family TV shows and several media outlets propagate individuality as a source of pride and evidence of personal growth. 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