2006 BEST WORK SAMPLE

Learning Outcomes demonstrated by this exhibit:

1. Research the history of this matter 2. Watch the actual address to the nation 3. Take rigorous notes 4. Read differing viewpoints on the matter

This is an article submitted to the Echo pertaining to President Bush's speech concerning the "surge."

I had to study the key players who helped put together the president's agenda. More importantly, I had to look into the different proposals the president chose to let hit the cutting room floor. The names, the lobby groups, the money backers, and those who would benefit from the surge was worth a story in and of itself, but the project was simply to opine as to what the surge would or would not do.

___JTB___

This exhibit reflects my best work in the areas noted above.

___JTB___

This exhibit reflects a high degree of professionalism in general writing skill, grammar and organizatio

Operation Continue Doing the Wrong Thing
By Jeremiah Bannister
Ran as "Bush Contra Mundum" in the Olivet Echo

"Failure is when your best just isn’t good enough," or so says the demotivational calendar I bought my father for Christmas. While the maxim is meant to be a joke, I couldn’t help but to think that in a very strange way it summed up Bush’s tenure as commander in chief. Regardless of how hard he tries, it appears that his every effort results in a worsening of an already horrific situation.

Unfortunately, his “new direction” for the Iraq war is no exception. To be honest, prior to seeing his speech on Thursday, January 11, my hopes were at a 4-year-high. With the pounding the Republicans received from the Democrats in November, the overwhelming public disapproval of the war and the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group getting praises from both sides of the political aisle, I bet my chips that Bush would abandon the neoconservative mantra for a more political and diplomatic approach. Time magazine had the same enthusiasm, publishing a cover story entitled, “The Iraq Study Group says it’s time for an exit strategy. Why Bush will listen.” Even neocon flagships like the Weekly Standard and National Review were biting their nails over the possibility of Bush “backpedaling.”

Unfortunately, those predictions were dashed to pieces when Bush made it clear that he would continue flying with the war-hawks. The Kagan-Keane report, a plan concocted by the same cabal that got us into this infamous fiasco, was the game plan our president ended up embracing. With Baker-Hamilton’s 79 recommendations tossed to the side and Colin Powell’s recent criticisms disregarded, the president chose to call for tours to be lengthened, deployments to be stretched and recruiters to go hog-wild in hope of bolstering the floundering enlistment numbers. This, contrary to popular demand, was the new direction for our policy in Iraq.

Will the plan work? Not likely. It emphasizes a surge that, like its predecessors, will not resolve the problems in Iraq any more than a Band-Aid would stop the bleeding of an amputated leg. With over 3,000 American soldiers dead, 25,000 wounded, over 100,000 Iraqi civilians six-feet-deep and the cost of the war surpassing $400 billion dollars, it would appear the that only surge worth pursuing is one that would include soldiers coming home. Then again, Bush is about as fond of conventional wisdom as he is of reading the newspaper.

In the end, my father’s calendar hits the mark when it says, “Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.” Unfortunately, these folks often end up dictating our foreign policy.

NARRATIVE

I was assigned this story by then editor Eleni Metropulous. The objective was to listen to the president's speech, analyze what he had to say, and then give my two-cents worth. Easy enough.

I watched the program at my grandmother's home because I know I would have the peace and quiet needed for such an assignment. Prior to having left school I printed out a number of facts sheets, articles from those supporting and those opposing the surge, as well as the conditions on the ground that led to the president's decision.

Once the speech was over I went over all of the material two more times. I made sure to get as many facts straight as possible. Dot every "i" and cross every "t."