Victory Garden, Stuart Moulthrop’s 1991 classic hyperfiction, presents a nonlinear story of U. S. home front involvement in the First Gulf War in a way that facilitates confusion and mimics a "fog of war" sort of (un)awareness. Using Storyspace to build his complex narrative, Moulthrop incorporates poetry, fiction, historical references, and low-tech graphic novel type elements. Among the graphic components are all-black and all-white screens that function as variables. Overtly, these screens speak of closure and signify unconsciousness; however, their nonverbal role may also be linked to the ineffability trope as used by Dante Alighieri and re-interpreted by contemporary linguist Ruiging Liang. To date, critics and meta-readers have incorrectly assumed that the protagonist, Emily Runbird, becomes a fatality. By failing to read her life or death as undecidable, we deny the fiction its full power as a postmodern interpretive dilemma. This assumption plays into what might be posited as Moulthrop’s real thesis: syllogism in a corrupted (war time) information system is potentially tragic. A summary of theories and critical approaches relevant to the blank screen’s use as interstice together with sample engagements with relevant texts—reading Victory Garden, as per Wolfgang Iser’s phenomenological approach, Stanley Fish’s reader response theory, and Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction—prove Victory Garden, to be a challenging but consistent literary breakdown (staged malfunction of reading habits). Ultimately, ineffability is shown to be a reading strategy and the action Aristotle characterizes as key to the definition of tragedy is seen as performed by the reader. Moulthrop dangles the question about Emily’s demise as a critical reading moment prone to corruption. The classical anagnorisis is not Emily’s; the revelation Moulthrop intends is reserved for the reader and is precipitated by the need to resolve aporia.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2009. / Adviser: Terri Fine. Includes bibliographical references (p. 120-123).

Thesis (M.A.A.S.) -- Air University, 2004. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on April 24, 2009). "June 2004." Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-91).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Master of Arts / Department of History / Donald J. Mrozek / On 16 January 1991, a coalition of nations led by the United States launched a series of air strikes against Iraq to force that country to withdraw from Kuwait. What followed was an intense aerial bombardment of Iraqi military and civilian infrastructure which lasted until 24 February when the coalition began a ground offensive. After four days of ground fighting Iraq withdrew from Kuwait. American pictorial print media created a historical interpretation of the 1991 Persian Gulf War in the sense that selected images were immediately published to a broad audience and these images provided an acceptable story of the war. Perceptions of an Air Campaign examines the cultural meanings of the air war and how these meanings took shape in the narrative pictorial print media produced. The narrative is intricately related to the legacy of the Vietnam War. For generations, Americans viewed contemporary war, politics, foreign affairs, and culture through their memories of the U.S. defeat in Vietnam. President George H.W. Bush guaranteed the U.S. public that the Gulf War was consciously being constructed to avoid a conflict similar to Vietnam. According to the president, the United States was going to war with enough resources for a swift and decisive victory, thereby avoiding the Vietnam pitfall of an open-ended conflict. Pictorial print media articulated a narrative displaying U.S. military strength and dominance that fulfilled Bush’s promise.

This dissertation explores the ways in which Americans constructed a public understanding about gender relations in Muslim countries from the Iranian Revolution through the post-9/11 period that cast Muslims as oppressors of women. It argues that such understandings significantly influenced U.S. foreign policy in recent decades. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, the degree to which women had or lacked rights became one barometer by which Americans judged Muslim societies. Journalists, scholars, women's rights activists, novelists, filmmakers, politicians, and others in the U.S. contributed to public debates since 1979 that cast Muslims as particularly oppressive of women. The pervasiveness of such views and lobbying efforts by women's rights activists pushed policymakers to situate the attainment of rights for women within the constellation of legitimate areas of policy concern regarding the Muslim world. As a consequence, by the 1990s concern for Muslim women's rights sometimes drove U.S. policy, as when President Clinton chose not to recognize the Taliban regime in 1998; at other times, rhetoric about the oppression of Muslim women became a political tool which policymakers could use to provide legitimacy and moral force for their interventions in the Islamic world. This story is both national and transnational and involves both state and non-state actors. / History

This diploma thesis deals with the depiction of the role of media and journalists in war conflicts. It analyses the way the film producers portray media and journalistic work, their characters and abilities. The analysis also looks for attributes of professional journalistic routine in the hostile environment of the war zones, how media and journalists communicate with each other, the way they interact with civilians, soldiers, how critical they are towards the official establishment line of their editors or governments. The method used for analysing the feature and documentary films was the qualitative content analysis. After seeing the films several times, eleven categories that represented best the groups of similarities concerning media and journalists were defined throughout the analysed films. After that, charts were created where brief descriptions of categories and data were lined up and then compared. The next part of the analysis inspects these data even deeper. The result shows how the film makers depict journalistic routines and which stereotypes they use. We also learn whether the picture of the journalists differs according to each of the conflicts when we know that there were utterly different motivations behind them.

Les conflits récents qui ont impliqué l’Irak en 1990 et2003 sont deux conflits menés essentiellement par les Etats-Unis contre l’Irak. Si le premier se fonde, en dépit du droit de légitime défense collective, sur une autorisation du Conseil de sécurité, conformément à une interprétation évolutive de la Charte, le second repose sur des interprétations extensives de la Charte : l’autorisation implicite et la légitime défensepréventive et anticipatoire destinées à éradiquer une menace. Cette recherche tente d’analyserles arguments invoqués en allant jusqu’au bout du raisonnement américain qui s’appuie sur lastratégie de sécurité nationale pour agir dans l’ordre international. Au-delà de la confrontationdu conflit de 2003 aux nouvelles théories tendant à élargir l’autorisation et la légitime défenseet à réhabiliter de vieux concepts de "guerre juste" ou d’"autoprotection" en vigueur auXIXème siècle, c’est leur impact sur le principe de l’interdiction du recours à la force qui aété analysé. Ces nouvelles théories ne sont ni acceptées de lege lata, ni acceptables de legeferanda. Le principe de l’interdiction du recours à la force n’a donc subi aucune brèche. Aulieu d’accepter ces théories, c’est à travers le renforcement de l’action de l’ONU (ses organespolitiques et judiciaires) qu’il faudrait rechercher un moyen d’agir en cas de menace. / The recent conflicts that involved Iraq in 1990 and 2003 are both conflicts fought primarily by the United States of America against Iraq. If the first is based, despite theright of collective self-defense, on an authorization of the Security Council, in accordancewith an evolutionary interpretation of the Charter, the second is based on a liberal interpretation of the Charter: the implied authorization and preventive and anticipatory self defense to eradicate a threat This research attempts to analyze the arguments put forward bythoroughly vetting the United States of America’s rationale based on its national securitystrategy to act in the international order. Beyond exploring the relationship of the 2003conflict to the new theories which attempt to extend the authorization and self-defense and therehabilitation of old concepts of "just war" or "auto-protection" in force in the NineteenthCentury, the impact of these new theories on the principle of the prohibition of the use offorce was also analyzed. These same theories are neither accepted as lege lata nor acceptableas lege ferenda. Accordingly, the principle of the prohibition of the use of force has in no waybeen breached. Instead of accepting these theories, a way to deal with threats should besought through the strengthening of the role of the UN (both its political and judiciaryorgans).

The use of banned toxic weapons in Iraq during Gulf War 1991 started new debates. The increase in cancer cases was the main focus of these issues. The gap in literature motivated this study to find out the correlation between use of DU weapons and its effects on human health. The different probable causes of increase in cancer cases, in Iraq after Gulf War 1991, have been discussed in this study. Three causes; DU, brick kilns smoke near Basra and Kuwait oil fire smoke have been selected. The major emphasis of this study is on use of Depleted Uranium (DU). Different statistical data sets have been used and displayed in the form of maps and graphs using GIS methodologies. It’s hard to say after this GIS based study that the fired Depleted Uranium is the sole cause of increase in cancer incidences in Iraq, while some trends and risk factors at least can be observed where increase in cancer cases in different Governorates in Iraq is clearly visible after Gulf War 1991. After analyzing satellite images of different dates, the second part of this study concludes that Kuwait oil wells smoke is not responsible for increase in cancer incidences in Iraq. A small debate has been initiated regarding smoke in brick kilns near Basra. No study has been found in this regard which can provide evidences that brick kilns smoke is the cause of increase in cancer incidences in southern Iraq. It’s not easy to carry out a full fledge GIS based study to prove DU as cause of increase in cancer cases. The main limitation in this regard is unavailability of required data. Therefore a new GIS based methodology has been devised which can be used to prove relationship between exposure to DU and increase in cancer cases in Iraq. This new methodology is also dependent on specific data sets. Hence this methodology also recommends the collection of specific data sets required for this study. At the end, a detailed study, with honesty, has been suggested to fill up the gaps found in literature whether use of Depleted Uranium in weapons is harmful for human health or not.

Att använda erfarenheter, i form av principer, vid militär planering är inget nytt fenomen. SedanNapoleontiden har det vuxit fram riktlinjer för militär planering och genomförande i form avKrigföringens grundprinciper och principer för att skapa en framgångsrik logistik. Exempel påprinciper och hur de ska tolkas finns i de flesta av världens försvarsmakters doktriner.Syftet med uppsatsen är att ge exempel på hur principer för logistik kan användas för att reflekteraöver de logistiska utmaningar, som en befälhavare eller stabsofficer ställs inför vid en militärplanering.Som empiri, för att värdera principerna mot, har Falklandkriget 1982 och Gulfkriget 1991, med ettbrittiskt/amerikansk perspektiv använts. De är båda konventionella krig med ett tydligt militärtslutmål, men har väldigt olika förutsättningar för logistiken i både en tid-, rum- ochstyrkejämförelse.Uppsatsen använder abduktion som metod. Fem principer för logistik bildar hypoteser förframgång som ställs mot empirin, i form av de två krigen. Krigen ställs mot varandra, medprinciperna som analysverktyg, och komparationens likheter och skillnader gör det möjligt attvärdera och dra slutsatser av principernas innebörd.Resultatet visar att principerna har ett värde och analysen ger vid handen ett flertal slutsatser somkan användas vid militär planering. Principerna ska inte ses som ett krav som måste uppnås för attnå framgång, utan som stöd och riktlinjer för att ta tillvara beprövad erfarenhet. / Using experience, in the form of principles, in military planning is not a new phenomenon. SinceNapoleon there has been development of guidelines for military planning and execution in theform of Principles of War and principles for creating successful logistics. Examples of principlescan be found in most of the world’s defense forces’ doctrines.The overall aim of the thesis is to give examples of how to use principles for logistics to reflecton the logistic challenges you face, as a commander or a staff officer, in military planning.The empirical material used to test the principles against are the Falkland War and the Gulf War,from a British/American perspective. They are both conventional wars with a clear military endstate, but differ a lot in the logistic requirements, both in a time-, space- and forces comparison.The thesis uses the method of abduction. Five principles of logistics make five hypotheses forsuccess that are contrasted with the empirical evidence, in the form of the two wars. The wars arecompared to each other, with the principles as analytic tools, and the similarity and thedifferences in the comparison make it possible to draw conclusions about the principles’ content.The result shows that the principles have value and the analysis gives a number of conclusionsthat can be used in military planning. The principles should not be seen as requirements forsuccess, but rather as a support of, and as guidelines for your planning in order to make use ofprevious experience. / Avdelning: ALB – Slutet Mag. 3 C-upps. Hylla: Upps. ChP 07-09