The injustices of the Iraq War

Policy is a course that I'm taking in my last term as a junior. My classmates and I just ended the 2nd unit of this term, "Executive". The main focus was the executive branch of the US Government. We talked about actions that the executive branch can take and cabinet positions, I specifically looked into the Secretary of Housing and Urban development but I got a chance to look into my classmates positions. We went to the Cook County Criminal Courthouse in this unit and it's so far one of my favorite field experiences, we got to witness part of an actual murder trial. I learned about the wars that had US involvement and what it takes to declare a war. For this Action project, I wrote about how the Iraq war wasn't a just war. I came across this blog that has photographs from the Iraq war and that made me realize how much of an impact the war was.

Marco Di Lauro, 2003

This photo is from the blog of Marco Di Lauro, who at the time worked for  Getty Images News Service. I came across while looking for information on documenting the United states invasion of Iraq. Researching this was very enlightening to what's going on in government decisions and how it affects everyone involved, rather it's direct or indirect interactions.
Here's my paper:

Towards the end of writing this paper, my class visited the National Veterans Art Museum. This went along with my paper because I talked about how soldiers are now affected physically and mentally for the rest of their lives. I saw the photography there, it really connected with me as a viewer even though I have no idea what the soldiers went through while oversee's.

Yeon J. Yue, 2017, Grey American Landscape

 I asked our tour guide does she see a difference in art between the generations of veterans and she said that around the time of the Iraq and Afghanistan war, there was a lot of photography because that was around the time you were first allowed a camera. She also said that soldiers now in this generation turn towards performance art and comedy, I found that really interesting how the mediums changed through the decades. A lot of veterans have different experiences and that can seem really isolated after going to war and they're dropped into regular civilization expected to live it over again.

Yeon J. Yue, 2017, Grey American Landscape

This project was really enjoyable. I like to research and write so I had fun learning about the Iraq war. My favorite part of researching was looking through a theoretical analysis by Kenneth N. Waltz, called Man, the State and War. I'm glad that I chose this war because I feel like I gained so much information on the United states and the war itself.