Rendering : Week 8

The article "Car bombs kill 13 in Damascus' Old City and Aleppo " was published on the website news.com on the 21st of October.
The article discusses the situation in Syria where a car bomb exploded outside a police station in a Christian quarter of Damascus on Sunday, killing 13 people, while a similar attack struck Syria's second city of Aleppo.
Analyzing the situation it's necessary to emphasize that the author told us that a large part of Syria's Christian community backs President Bashar al-Assad, fearful of the influence of Islamists in the revolt.
Giving appraisal of the situation it's necessary to point out that in the northern city, fierce clashes broke out between rebels and troops around the ancient Citadel, the Observatory said, adding that four rebels were killed in fighting across the city.
In this connection it’s worthwhile mentioning that Renewed fighting was reported at the southern entrance to Maaret al-Numan, a strategic town on the Aleppo-Damascus highway that fell under rebel control on October 9, blocking off a key army supply route.
The article concludes by saying that The Observatory gave an initial toll of 55 killed across the country on Sunday: 19 civilians, 25 soldiers and 11 rebels.
As for me I think that terrorism is one of the most important contemporary issues.
Many innocent people lose their lives due to it.
Survivors are deprived of their homes or they lose relatives.
I hope that one day the nations of the world come together and solve this problem.

Rendering : Week 7

The article "Three Wars on Terror" was published by John Arquilla on the website of the newspaper "The National Security" on September 10th .
The article carries a lot of comment on the difference in the approaches to war on terror of three American presidents.
Speaking of Barack Obama it is necessary to note that his earliest acts as president was to discard the phrase "war on terror," yet he has been waging just such a campaign these past four years with a skillful mix of subtlety and ferocity.
It's an open secret that Several major al Qaeda plots have been thwarted by aggressive, innovative intelligence programs, often conducted in a deeply networked fashion with our allies.
In addition to the killing of Osama bin Laden, many other operatives in the late terrorist capo's organization have found themselves on the receiving end of commando raids or Hellfire missiles, from Waziristan to Yemen and beyond.
Giving appraisal of the situation it's necessary to point out that the difference in the approaches taken by our two most recent presidents really speaks to there being two different wars on terror.
In this connection it’s worthwhile mentioning that Bush chose to attack other nations in his attempt to create a less permissive international environment for terrorist networks.
Obama has decided to take the more direct approach: going straight after the networks.
Speaking of George Bush it is necessary to emphasize that his strategy proved exceptionally costly and highly problematic in Iraq, and even his initial success in "going small" in Afghanistan was all too soon overtaken by a stalemate-inducing impulse to send large numbers of troops there.
Obama's concept of operations, on the other hand, has been working well, and will never break the bank or exhaust our military especially in the wake of his realizing, and reversing, the folly of surging more troops into Afghanistan, as senior military leaders persuaded him to do early in his presidency.
Analyzing the situation it’s necessary to emphasize that there was an earlier war on terror, crafted by Ronald Reagan and his close advisers in the mid-1980s, that began subtly and skillfully, too yet which soon foundered.
The authors draws a conclusion that Barack Obama has done much better by hewing close to the concept that Reagan initially embraced.
But, as was the case with Reagan, there is now a similar battle going on for Obama's strategic soul.
As for me I think that America itself can not solve the problem with terrorism. The countries of the whole world need to unite in order to eradicate the 21th century's evil forever.

My Pleasure Reading. Summary (pages 340-400)

Joe's wanderings had brought him to Jefferson, where he heard about Miss Burden’s property.
Waiting until nightfall, he got into the kitchen through an open window and, ate some leftover field peas.
When he heard Miss Burden approach, he did not run.
When she appeared, she told him that he was free to finish his meal.

Though they were lovers, Joe and Miss Burden had a strange and distant relationship.
They talked little.
She left food on the kitchen table for him but rarely visited him when he came in to eat.
During the day, Joe never ventured beyond the kitchen, but at night he went to Miss Burden’s bedroom, where she waited for him.
When she set out a full meal for him, Joe entered the house and smashed the dishes against the wall, as he had done with his foster mother.

After getting a job at the mill, Joe continued to live in the cabin but neither entered the main house and thus didn't see Miss Burden for months.
One September evening, he returned to the cabin to find her seated on his cot. She told him her life story, going on for hours.
She told about her grandfather and brother, who were killed by a local man, Colonel Sartoris, because of a disagreement concerning black voting rites. When Miss Burden finished and it was Joe’s turn to speak, all he was able to say was that one of his anonymous parents was part black.

My Pleasure Reading. Summary (pages 300-340)

One night, McEachern watched as Joe went outside his window and was picked up by a car.
McEachern was guided to the schoolhouse, where a dance was being held. He jumped on the scene, calling Bobbie a harlot, and began beating his son, who smashed a chair over his father's head, killing him.

Joe went back to the house, where he took all the money his mother had been saving, hidden in a tin beneath a floor plank.
Joe run to Max and Mame's house, where Bobbie was packed and ready to return to Memphis.
Joe took his mother's money out and gave it to Bobbie as his proposal of marriage.
She thrown the offering back at him .
The group of men, beating him until Mame finally stopped them.


The group pulled off in the car, leaving him behind. Badly beaten, Joe managed to get out onto the street and out of town.

For the next fifteen years, Joe was working in oil towns as a laborer, miner, and prospector. Finally, he enlisted in the army and then deserts. For a short time, he settled down among blacks and lived with a dark-skinned woman for a while.

Rendering : Week 6

The article "Man arrested in plot to blow up 48 churches in Oklahoma "was published by Joe Sutton on the website CNN.com on the 12st of October.
The article discusses the situation in Oklahoma where Authorities have arrested and charged a 23-year-old man who they say planned to blow up 48 area churches.
Analyzing the situation it’s necessary to emphasize that the author notices that Police searched the room and allegedly found various documents outlining his plan to set off bombs at 48 churches in and around Miami.
So that the authorities are actively investigating this situation as terrorism today is one of the major problems.
Giving appraisal of the situation it’s necessary to point out that among the documents were a list of churches, a hand-drawn map with the churches grouped and circled, instructions for making Molotov cocktails and a handwritten journal.
Some of the documents had been torn up and needed to be assembled.
Thus this terrorist attack was planned in advance.
The author does not express his attitude to the situation.
As for me I think that law enforcement authorities deserve respect as they were able to prevent the attack and thus saved human lifes

My Pleasure Reading. Summary (pages 220-300)

At the age of fourteen Joe and the other farm boys enticed a young black woman into a shed to have sex. When Joe's turn came, he began to beat the woman.
The other boys tried to stop him. Then he returned home where he faced father's punishment for not completing the day-work.

His parents finally fell asleep, and seventeen-year-old Joe silently went outside his bedroom through the window.
He went down to the road and waited for his date to pick him up in her car and tooke them to the dance.

Joe recalled how he first had met the woman in town, accompanying his father on a trip to meet with a lawyer.
When the consultation run late, Mr. McEachern took them to a dingy back-alley restaurant, staffed by a thirty-year-old waitress.

Joe unnerved by his sexual attraction to the waitress, avoided town and tried to lose himself in bouts of hard work.
But Joe suddenly resumed his interest in going to town and accompanied his father on the next trip, carrying a half dollar that his mother had secretly given him.
He only wanted to meet Bobbie, the waitress, on the street. Two days later, Joe was early for the nighttime rendezvous that they had planned.

Soon the two were seeing each other regularly, and Joe was stealing more and more money from his mother. When he showed up to meet her on the street corner one evening and she did not appear, he went to her window and discover that she was entertaining another man inside.
At their next meeting, he striked her repeatedly before she calmed him down and explained to him that she was a prostitute. 

Rendering : Week 5

The editorial "The forgotten war"was published on the website of the newspaper "The Telegraph" on the 1st of October.
The article takes a critical view of the attitude of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to the Afghan conflict.

Analyzing the situation it’s necessary to emphasize that the author notices that with the presidential election race now entering its final stages, Mr Obama appears strangely reluctant to address the Afghan issue.
Apart from brief references to his achievement in ending the war in Iraq, and his intention to do the same in Afghanistan, the conflict has almost been forgotten so far as the election campaign is concerned, with the Obama team determined to steer clear of an issue that no longer enjoys much popular support.

Speaking of the Republican candidate it is necessary to note that the same goes for him.
Despite his bellicose statements on national security issues such as Iran, he has been reticent about Afghanistan, beyond echoing the calls for a timely withdrawal

Giving appraisal of the situation it is important to point out that the author thinks that With the future of the Afghan campaign hanging in the balance, this is an inopportune moment for America’s political classes to be suffering from a collective bout of amnesia.

In conclusion the author suggest that The Taliban remains a force to be reckoned with, as demonstrated by its recent spate of attacks against Nato troops, and is determined to re-establish its power base once American and British troops conclude their combat operations in 2014, and hand over full responsibility to local forces.

It would be wrong to assume that Mr Obama or Mr Romney will be able to ignore the implications.

Speaking about my opinion it coincides with the author's one. I believe that politicans should pay their attention for the Afgan conflict regardless of any other important questions whether it will be even the presidential elections.