Word: harshness
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...reservations about the U.S. foray into the gulf find themselves siding with some old intellectual foes. Liberal historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. observes with some bemusement that his views about the American involvement in the region are pretty much the same as those Buchanan has espoused. "Well," says Schlesinger, a harsh critic of the Vietnam War, "people learn." As the U.S. gropes for a new definition of its interests in a topsy-turvy world, such startling shifts of opinion may become commonplace...
After the sun has set and the temperature slips from 110 degrees to 95 degrees, the troops reassemble for their first nighttime march. A cooling breeze begins to blow across the desert, making the harsh terrain suddenly seem soft and welcoming. The men head for a road 1 1/2 miles away, where they plan to practice digging in for an ambush. There is no talking and no illumination except for starlight. In the darkness the silhouettes ahead could belong to a band of desert nomads. A hundred yards away a herd of camels shuffles by, urged on by its Bedouin...
...hostages for maximum political impact, probe for weaknesses, and leave the next move up to the U.S. and its allies. All week long, Saddam has been testing the other side's nerves. He has pushed hard at Western determination to keep embassies in Kuwait open in the face of harsh Iraqi threats. He is running his tankers through the international armada, pressing to see if they will be forcibly stopped. Both these gambits could easily set off a military clash. At the same time, Saddam has issued almost daily statements claiming he is open to negotiations without preconditions...
...Sandinistas have all of the muscle, and they monitor phone calls at will," says a U.S. diplomat just back from Nicaragua. Humberto Ortega, brother of the ex-President and Chamorro's army chief, earns grudging American respect as the most politically adroit figure in the country. Chamorro gets a harsh assessment. "Even her friends call her 'Rag Doll,' " says the U.S. official. "She's basically apolitical and wants Nicaragua to be a big happy family. Not surprisingly, nobody respects her. Ministers ignore the orders she signs...
Both Brown and the mayor have admitted as much, citing harsh budgetary constraints, the absence of tough federal gun-control laws and the slew of social ills that are at the core of urban warfare. "People know that I'm not responsible for the crime rate," says Dinkins. "They know that crime is directly attributable to drug addiction." The mayor may well be right. But Dinkins' statements strike many New Yorkers as a dismaying confession that government has no remedy for the mayhem that has made toddlers unsafe in their own homes...