The American people in the US-Led Afghanistan and Iraq War Essay

The American people in the US-Led Afghanistan and Iraq War - Essay Example in Smith 125). More than its military might, the real power of the US lies in its high moral ground in defending civil liberties and the rule of law at home and abroad. With this consistent posturing, the US government gets high support from the American public and the international community, cementing its appearance of invincibility and making its citizens feel secure against any external threat. However, this long-held belief was eroded when Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda unprecedentedly attacked the symbols of US power in New York City, Washington D.C. and Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. This shocked the world and inflicted harm against the US far beyond its number of casualties and destroyed properties, as it had created deep fear of insecurity among Americans, exposing the vulnerability of the world’s super power. In reprisal, the Bush administration immediately launched its international war against terror not simply to expunge terrorism but most imp ortantly to pacify and bring back the myth of US invincibility to the American public that for many decades had made them feel secure and superior. Unfortunately, the result had been the opposite. In its war against terror, the US has unwittingly stripped off itself of its real hegemonic motives and exposed its total disregard to civil liberties, inevitably reversing the American public and international support into condemnation. Bush’s full military offensive against terrorism had been a backlash, not only against his administration but against America. II War Justification and Motives The 9/11terrorist attack on the US soil served the Bush administration in two important ways that would later unmask the US government to its own people and to the world. First, it served as warning that the American public is no longer safe in their own land, which created in them deep fear of insecurity to the point of paranoia. This called for a review on US foreign policy sharpening the v iew that US hegemony might have been creating and fuelling anti-US sentiments giving terrorists reason to attack America – a view that although not new was not given much thought before, much more by the American public. Second, this had become an opportunity to send America to war, as the fragile state of the American public was carefully manipulated to conveniently justify a war that Bush and his cowboys found decisive in insuring the strategic positioning and in imposing the US hegemonic interest in the Middle East. Never before had there been an attack attempted against the US on its own soil that was as bold and sophisticated as the bombing of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. This did not simply shock the world but had created in the American public the deep fear of insecurity, seeing that international terrorism had grown into a potent enemy capable of harming even the most formidable nation in the world. Meaning, nothing is seemingly safe against international terr orism and that America was no longer a safe place to live in. This thought sent a chilling effect on Americans, especially those living conveniently in their homes. Opportunely, too, the Al-Qaeda had been so easily transformed into a new enemy of the world replacing the collapsed communist Soviet Union. Thus the neo-conservatives in the Bush administration had created a convincing myth to push for their long desired war in the Middle East without much opposition. (Shah 6) The magnitude of the casualty and the sophistication of the tactic employed by Al-Qaeda in 9/11 attack had really shaken not only

Dimensions of Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dimensions of Health - Essay Example Even with ongoing debate for and against the definition proposed by WHO, it is clear from this definition that health is an entity with multiple dimensions. This definition envisages three specific dimensions, the physical, mental, and social. These dimensions appear separate, but in reality, they are dynamic and interact with each other. Human behaviour is a common theme in human health. Human behaviour is the resultant of physical and mental factors interacting in complicated ways. The broad categories of factors that may influence individual health behaviour include knowledge, beliefs, values, attitudes, skills, finance, time, and many others. It is important to give serious considerations to the social context, a particular behaviour occurs. Health behaviour refers to those activities that an individual undertakes to avoid disease. These behaviours are dependent on the environmental contexts as well as on emotions and feelings. Most importantly, health behaviour depends on the he alth needs (Hawks et al., 2008, 319-324). Attitudes are acquired characteristics of an individual that are considered to be more or less permanent ways of behaving. An attitude contains three components, a cognitive or knowledge element, an affective or feeling element, and a tendency to action. Thus attitude can be defined as a relatively enduring organization of beliefs around an object, subject, or concept that predisposes to a response in a preferential manner. Most human beings learn attitudes from social interactions, and once they are formed, it is very difficult to change. In the recent time, attitudes are being recognized as very important determinants of health behaviours, and consequently, psychologists and health care professionals are increasingly dwelling on attitude surveys and attitude measurements, since it is becoming clear that healthy attitudes gravitate from parents, teachers, religious leaders, and elders (Nielsen et al., 2004, 28-32). The beliefs and attributions that people hold can influence their health. This can influence health by affecting their behaviour such as food habits and by a direct influence on the physiological system. Although these two modes are not mutually exclusive for the patient, and there is another set of health beliefs and attributions from the health professionals that can affect the health of individuals. These beliefs may influence health decisions and also influence patients' cognitions. Healthcare professionals may influence the beliefs and attributions, hence behaviour of patients by giving them information and through expression of their beliefs about the patient's health and the best way to overcome a particular health problem. Hence health professionals' beliefs about a disease and its management are large factors in influencing the values of the patients and their approaches to the management of illness (O'hea et al., 2005, 705-717). Values are traits such as honesty, loyalty, intelligence, or talent. This is a set of instrumental values. The other conceptions of values as traits include instrumental and expressive tendencies. Values have also been defined as need strengths including achievement, affiliation, and dominance. The contemporary values point towards a person's value-directed preference for quality rather than quantity of life. The values ascertain the strength of