Source post #5

An article gives an analysis on the conclusion by Russian officials on the Katyn plane crash of last year. It appears they are squarely putting the blame on "Polish officials for the crash, and also suggesting that Polish political pressure may have provoked the pilot to make the landing attempt." The hope that a sort of camaraderie may emerge between these two countries now appears to be a fallacy. However, other articles will need to be addressed and read to truly be able to predict how events may unfold between Poland and Russia.

Buruma Evaluation

Personally, I truly enjoyed Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma. I felt it was incredibly informative, comparable to that of educational texts, minus the drawled out chapters that often put readers to sleep. His balance between anecdotes and analysis of modern and past events is admirable, keeping a cohesive pattern throughout.

In class, we were getting at what his stance was on what the Dutch policy should be, or if he ever states what he believes. Speaking for myself, I reckon he was hinting at how the Dutch need to shake off the terrors and spirits of WWII, not bring these malicious and guilty feelings to modern day affairs. The fact of the matter is that muslim immigrants need to be taken for what they are at face value. We can't keep on trying to make up for the abominations of the past by breaking our backs bending over to not come across as tyrants. The Netherlands still feel they carry red on their hands, and thus constantly feel guilty for sporadically having a backbone and saying "no" to certain requests by religious minorities. Because of this, the Dutch are now seeing the consequences of their ways of thinking by constantly relating things back to the Holocaust, and these results are not brightly shining beacons of light. They now have to deal with the fact that in the future, muslims may be the majority in the Netherlands, and their quaint, colorful neighborhoods will soon become "dish cities" with people "slaughtering goats on balconies." If the Dutch truly are appalled at a chance of this becoming their reality, surely politicians need to get their act together and defend their home and culture.

Source post #4

Katyn Wood Murders by Mackiewicz is a historical reference I am using. It's one of the six books I checked out of the UWM Golda Meir library, and has proved to be reliable as a historical recount of the events leading up to, during, and after the Katyn massacres. The fact that it's not dry reading keeps me immersed - it does a fantastic job of keeping the suspense as if it was a fiction novel. It also plays with the reader's heartstrings, putting one into the shoes of people who had lost contact with family members abruptly in the month of April. I'm positive I will be finishing this book, along with another first-hand account of the horrific ordeal.

Source post #3

I will be using an article by Anne Applebaum from the Washington Post which delves into why talk of Katyn and the eery forests surrounding it spark nasty visions of haunted spirits. She also touches on how conspiracy theories have risen as a result of the ironic plane crash, yet claims that these really only appear on "fringe websites" or come from the "odd politician." This article is mostly just more of the same types of articles I currently have under my belt - the kind that have a specific voice from the author, go into the history of Katyn very briefly, and offer their own two cents.

Source post #2

A heart-tugging reference I will be using in my project is this article by the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps one of the saddest articles I have read, it talks about Wojciech Seweryn, whose father was one of the 20,000+ men executed at Katyn. It reads that he spent his free time bringing attention to the Katyn massacre, and built a monument of the Virgin Mary cradling an adult with a bullet through his head. What makes this story so depressing is that Wojciech bought "a navy-blue suit, two white shirts and a blue one, new shoes and so many socks his wife, Maria, laughed at him" upon the invitation to commemorate Katyn's 70th anniversary with top-ranked Polish government officials, including former Polish President Kaczynski. He was so incredibly excited for the ceremony, and worried that his new suit may wrinkle on the flight. In a sick twist of fate, he died in the same area his father did. To quote the article, "Katyn consumed [him]."

Relevance of a Source for my Topic

One of the sources I will be using is a publication by The Economist. Relatively short, it gets to its point quite rapidly and concisely. In summary, it shows the significance of Russians denying involvement in slaughtering 20,000 Polish intelligencia, claiming that the Nazis did it, by comparing it to a highly-ranked German official claiming that the Holocaust never happened. Published in 2008, the author claims that the random insurgence of mainstream denial of the mass killings isn't from Polish provocation. S/he states that this was done during a time when Poland was "bending over backwards" to alleviate relations with Moscow, although it seems as if it is a lost cause.

Mahbubani Article - Reaction

Reading Kishore Mahbubani's article, The Case Against the West, I got the exact impression I was expecting from such a title. The first sentence immediately claims that "there is a fundamental flaw" in the West's strategic thinking. He then goes on to say that the West constantly assumes that it is the final solution to any and every problem the world may face, when in fact it is apparently a "major source of these problems".

While I do agree with claim that the West immediately considers itself as almost a messiah to all other cultures, that it's the one and only true way of being, the West isn't completely at fault. It's not as if all the world's troubles are because of the west - that's just absurd. In another paragraph, he begins talking about the war waged on Iraq, adding a cheeky sentence that in essence implies that George W. Bush and Tony Blair in reality did have malevolent intentions regarding Iraq, without any evidence for this accusation. Not to say that the Iraq war is completely just and absolutely necessary, but it's definitely not something plotted wickedly in a dark corner of a cellar.

Another thing that I agree with in Mahbubani's article is that in the US, politicians are very wary to mention any Palestinian support at all, preferring to either keep hushed about it or boldly proclaim support for Israel. I personally am not involved nor informed enough to have my own opinion over the situation, though the "pro-Israel stranglehold" on Congress remains something that I believe needs to be addressed properly.

The information about the NPT & UN violations are yet more things that I find myself in accordance with. I can understand how someone would be incredulous when told about what the US has violated, yet still viewing itself as the global police force - it doesn't jive at all. To cut to the chase, I do agree with some points Mahbubani brings up. However, his contempt and disdain held towards the West/the US discredits him in my eyes.