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“A Few Good Men” was released in December of 1992 and was written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Rob Reiner. Anyone you ask who has watched the film will tell you that “A Few Good Men” is actually star studded and that the movie’s storyline is truly intriguing and worth watching. If you are planning to watch the movie, and you want to have an idea of what it’s about, read on.

“A Few Good Men” stars Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson. With award winning lead actors and actresses, you have to hand it to Rob Reiner for combining such great talent into one interesting movie. It’s a courtroom drama that tackles the court martial of 2 US Marines convicted with the killing of a fellow marine.

In “A Few Good Men”, Tom Cruise plays Lieutenant Junior tier Daniel Kaffee, nicknamed Danny, who is an amateur American Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps attorney who facilitates the impending defense in court of two Marines, Louden Down, played by James Marshall, and Harold Dawson, played by Wolfgang Bodison. Both Marines were alleged to have killed their fellow Marine, who was also a member of their unit, PFC William Santiago, played by Michael De Lorenzo. The crime took place in a naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which at the time was being commanded by Col. Nathan R. Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson.

Santiago had weak relationships with his team mates and failed to deal well with their standing commander. Santiago went to his supreme commanders to negotiate a transfer after reporting Dawson for making an unlawful shot across the Cuban part of the archipelago. When the transfer request is identified by the naval base’s superiors, a heated debate sparks between Santiago’s commander in charge, Lt. Jonathan Kendrick who is played by Kiefer Sutherland, who asserts that he can manage the circumstances, and Jessup’s corporate commander, Lt. Col. Matthew Andrew Markinson, who is played by JT Walsh, and casts uncertainty on Kendrick’s capacity reliant upon the preceding occurrences.

Markison supports the decision of Santiago to be transferred urgently for reasons pertinent to security. Prior to the requests being honored, Jessup stated that this would set a poor example that could result in fatalities. Fast forwarding to the end of the movie, the two marines convicted of the murder were dishonorably discharged for causing the death of their teammate and fellow Marine. Downey didn’t realize why they were sentenced with dishonorable discharges, yet Dawson nonetheless accepts the decision and later explains to his fellow convicted Marine that they failed to be courageous for people who didn’t have the courage to stand up for themselves, such as in the case of Santiago. As the 2 ex-Marines prepare to leave, Kaffee tells Dawson that they don’t require a patch on them to gain respect.

With the recent withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, some citizens may have breathed a sigh of relief, and mistakenly believed that the USA was done with military adventures in the region. This would betray a lack of knowledge regarding the extent of American deployments and security commitments in the region.

To start, the American Navy keeps a minimum of one aircraft carrier battle group in the Persian Gulf, with another easily within combat range in the Mediterranean. There is often a third Air Group patrolling the Indian Ocean, mere days away, and when the carriers on station are relieved, Naval strength doubles up to four or even six carriers in the region. Overall, this represents well over 20,000 naval personnel within range of potential combat at any given time. The speed with which the American naval forces can be reinforced is illustrated by the recent buildup due to the Iran crisis. These carrier groups are often accompanied by offshore marine battlegroups. During the last buildup, over 15,000 marines, about a full combat division’s worth, were ready for instant deployment to any enemy coast.

While Afghanistan is not geographically part of the middle east, over 100,000 US and NATO troops are still stationed there. The USA’s defense pact with Kuwait means that over 10,000 combat and support personnel are there at any time. Over 1,000 personnel are deployed to the NATO airbase at Incerlik in Turkey. The US naval and Army bases in Bahrain and Qatar containing the headquarters of the 5th fleet and CENTCOM’s forward command posts have over 3,000 American troops permanently stationed. While the US army is out of Iraq, the US embassy in Baghdad has the largest contingent of personnel of any US diplomatic mission anywhere, over 10,000 of them, while more than 20,000 private contractors are still providing security, most of whom are ex-servicemen. 

The bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar contain several divisions of pre-positioned combat equipment, although much of it has seen rough use in the recent Iraq campaigns. Still, this abundance of pre-positioned equipment is in accordance with the USA’s strategy of keeping bulkier combat equipment like tanks, trucks, and artillery, in place near a potential battlezone, so that a very large number of troops can be flown in on little notice and rapidly “married” to the waiting battle gear. In the 1991 War, most of this equipment was stationed at the lonely Indian Ocean outpost of Diego Garcia, still needing to be moved hundreds of miles. The size of that deployment, and the distant positioning of equipment, meant that it took almost 5 months to position the almost 700,000 troops. In contrast, the nearly 200,000 troops involved in the 2003 invasion took little more than two months to be ready. Since there is much more equipment left in the forward bases after the withdrawal, a similar force could likely be ready in even less time should the need arise.

A recent and controversial decision to deploy American troops to Israel for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War saw several thousand troops stationed there. A large portion of these are likely to stay there for the foreseeable future to operate the advanced missile defense systems recently provided to the IDF.

Oil is one of the few precious substances society needs and demands these days. Be it industrial or residential purposes, the applications of oil are myriad in number. Oil, though less visible, is used in coexistence with a range of everyday items and objects. From airplanes, automobiles, clothing, detergent, packaging, paint, hair care and hygiene products, and even vitamins, there is bound to be some type or form of oil composing the product or material.

Unfortunately, according to latest reports and studies, the economic stature is quite substandard, and from the looks of it, it is bound to continue its effects and impacts for further years to come. In fact, some are describing the age today as being the death of the oil economy. One of the people strongly advocating such a statement is Ted Trainer. Below is a discussion regarding Ted Trainer’s well known report about the Death of the Oil Economy?

According to the latest report on world oil resources, the world oil supply from 1930 to 2050 depict that the world’s oil supply will be depleted much sooner than what was formerly predicted. Designed for oil industry audiences, the study was priced $32,000 per copy and depicted that world oil supplies will most likely peak off as early as the year 2000 and is anticipated to lower up to half for the peak level of 2025. Massive and long-term escalations in oil prices are anticipated succeeding the year 2000.

Oil market experts and researchers presumed in the former years that oil supplies would last for around 50 years more, reliant upon the calculations that just separated measured reserves via the current yearly usage. Yet this technique of prediction defaulted to account for an escalation in Third World oil usage.

Depicted from the reports, if everyone were to consume petroleum oil in a per capital rate of commercialized nations, it would require a five fold escalation in present oil generation in order to meet the oil demand. If by 2060, the globe’s population surpasses the anticipated 11B mark and everyone were to deplete as much energy as the custom Australian does today, yearly global oil production would be required to escalate more than 20 times.

Seemingly, oil firms and nations exporting oil have realized that it is in their best interest to publicize that resources are substantial since their business negotiations restrict them from extracting and retailing a proportion of their prevailing resources. In fact, oil exploration rates are plummeting down sharply. The planet depletes 23B barrels of oil annually, yet the oil market locates sources only delivering 7B barrels per year.

Economists are now proactively debating regarding that inadequacy in oil supply will result in price escalations reaching tremendous heights, making it more lucrative and economically feasible to access less developed oil deposits. This proposition looks to be quite viable, given the circumstances that people prioritize cost and price rates as the most important element as opposed to other variables involved when acquiring oil.