Melville Assignment

In the Melville Assignment, you were asked to consider an history of the United States and an idea called “Manifest Destiny.” You were asked to think about that history and its potential relationship to Herman Melville’s short story, “Benito Cereno.” Then, you were asked to consider Melville’s contemporary, Walt Whitman, and his poem, “Pioneers! Oh Pioneers!” and how it might say something different about manifest destiny.

You’ll remember from “Reading Like a New Historicist” that it is important to do research when practicing New Historical criticism. Well, for this assignment, the video on US history and Manifest Destiny is your research. What do the videos tell you about the United States, its consciousness, belief systems, ideologies, conflicts, and contradictions? How does that inform Melville’s story? How does that inform Whitman’s poem?

ANSWER

Answer the question

4. What was your reaction to US Prosecutor Pierre Prosper’s analysis of prosecuting mass rape as a war crime in Rwanda? Since the US led the way with this tribunal and the first prosecution of mass rape internationally what are the factors that you see facilitating the US’s more recent turning away from setting international legal precedents as we did in Nuremberg and Rwanda? Do you agree or disagree with this change?

Write feedback to each student

Student 1

The president of Kosovo Thaci, resign to face war crimes charges at ICC, the reason why he resigned was to shield his country from disrepute. Thaci main objective was to protect the integrity of the presidency, state and the people of Kosovo. The indictment against Kosovo president gave hope to thousands of victims of the Kosovo war who have waited for more than two decades to find out the truth about the horrific crimes committed against them and their loved ones.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was established in 1993 as a response to mass atrocities in the region. The ICTY has broken down the culture of impunity for war crimes by holding individuals accountable regardless of their position. The ICTY has reshape the landscape of international criminal and humanitarian law and inspire the creation of other international criminal courts.

It is important to continue to investigate and prosecute criminal’s decades after because it set precedents for new political leaders, and tell them that no body is immune to justice. The main idea of ICC is to bring justice to people that have suffered the consequences of political wars. Innocent people that had the bad luck to be born in the wrong place.

Student 2

I strongly disagree with the US’s decision to sanction the ICC and Prosecutor. By hindering the investigation, the US could be preventing the alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan from being prosecuted. This can then lead others to believe that war crimes will go unprosecuted if seemingly powerful nations interfere with the investigation. Additionally, it hints that the US is above committing war crimes, since it is viewed as a world power. As is evident in the case of Abu Ghraib, US soldiers are capable of committing heinous acts and should be held accountable. The idea of fighting terrorism should not be used as an excuse for soldiers committing horrific acts.The ICC should not be limited to investigating countries with a weak government, but also more powerful nations as well. Unless all alleged war crimes are investigated, regardless of the origin of the offenders, the ICC will not be able to effectively address such crimes and the offenders will continue to rely on impunity. By interfering with the investigation, the US is utilizing fear mongering techniques to stop current and future investigations, which is detrimental to the global cooperation needed in order for the ICC to function.