Not only was this article extremely disturbing to me, but it was also extremely ironic. The soldiers highlighted in the article were acting like the men they were sent overseas to kill. Hypocrisy at its finest, if you ask me.

Before reading the article i watched the videos and the looked at the pictures first. The pictures of the soldiers posing with the dead boy are absolutely disgusting (in a disgusting sense of being completely wrong). My chest literally tightened when seeing them hold his head up as if he was just some animal...like it said in the article, it reminded me of hunters posing with their dead deers. What makes that situation worse, is that the boy was COMPLETELY innocent. It baffles me to think that United States soldiers would sink so low as to commit such a heinous crime, against a nonviolent, innocent boy. What must have been going through their minds prior to this event? What level of hatred must they have had for Afganistan people to continue through with this terrible idea? The killing of the boy was one thing, but then to watch a video of soldiers bombing three Afganistan men, for no good reason, was also equally chilling. Listening to the soldiers in the background of the video cheer and hollar after successfully striking one civilian makes me sick. I almost had to stop watching. In all the situations, what made it the worst to me was the fact that after the Afganistan civilians were dead they were all photographed and moved around. Such blatant disrespect towards the human race in general. I just can not understand how these crimes could have been committed by a person who was supposed to be a "moral" person, a person of protection against violent crime. After reading the article, watching the videos, and looking at the pictures I found myself having such a disgust for the United States army. I was, for a good five minutes, totally against everything and everyone involved with or supportive of the army. I wanted to call everyone i knew and just bash the crap out of the army and explain to them what a corrupt group of men and women they were. But after my anger I happened to read what Sam wrote to describe the article. He said, "Please keep in mind that a few bad seeds do not make the entire military corrupt and criminal. In fact, as we’ve discussed, the “professionalization” of the U.S. military has led to extraordinary successes in stopping the sorts of crimes highlighted in this article." It then made me think, Sam was right, these crimes were committed by only a small group of the United States army. There were a lot more "good" soldiers then there were these types of soldiers. After realizing that my disgust for the human race subsided slightly.

Just by reading the first sentence i was already hooked to the post. As i was reading, i almost forgot that i was reading something written by a man who is, and will be for life, in jail. The descriptions he used to describe "what a man is" was absolutely perfect to me...though im sure im slightly biased, since i am a girl. Usually you dont hear actual men talk about what a man should be in the ways that he did, so its refreshing to hear it come from a man instead of a female. In this day and age, one usually hears males saying that this type of male is actually not that manly at all...to me this type of person would be looked down upon by his fellow male peers for being "whipped" almost by his girlfriend. To me, every guy should read this. Maybe since it was written by a man who is perceived to be "tough" (since he's in jail) itll be taken more seriously by the male population. I know for a fact that men realize how much stress and pain they sometimes put women through, even if they dont mean to do it intentionally. Maybe if this post was more available to more men, the "wimpy dude" stereotype would no longer exist and men might actually change for the better.

When I first read the number 464 i instantly thought that number wasnt anything that overwhelming. Though after it was compared to the other countries which only racked up 12 more people, it seemed completely outrageous. After that i wondered why Pennsylvania was so strict when dealing with children and crimes. Why should only some juveniles get charged with life and others not? In my opinion, if a child is a child, then they should be tried as a child, no matter what they are being charged for. Isnt that why children and adults are separated when dealing with the law anyways. If they wanted to charge everyone equally why did they create the separation in the first place. But after saying that, i wonder how i would feel if i was put in a situation where a child has caused me harm, or someone i loved harm. I probably would feel complete hatred towards the person and literally WANT them to spend the rest of their lives in jail. So what im saying is that, i personally do not understand a life in prison situation so i am still neutral towards the topic. I feel how i feel now, but im sure if i encounter an issue in my life when sentencing of a juvenile involves me, i will feel differently.

Many Americans find foreign people so different from us firstly because we perceive them as being lower than us because of, obviously, the differences we have with them. Culture plays a big role in that. Cultures from around the world are so unique because each and every culture perceives themselves superior to another. Because of that, differences are bound to occur, therefore making the citizens aware of them. Another reason why Americans think people from other countries are so different is because of language. Language is such a huge barrier between everyone of different ethnicities and it creates other differences that most are not even aware of. I know personally, if I hear a person talk in a different language I can not help but feel that they are of lesser knowledge than me just because of the language they speak. Even though that is a completely absurd reason, it never fails to cross my mind every time I hear a foreign language. People who are unfamiliar with something tend to automatically think that it is one hundred percent different from anything they will ever know, even though it might be extremely similar. Because of that opinion, no one takes the time to look past those differences and see thtat actually similarities might be there.

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