Word: specter
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...about 40% of the country's 26 million people--are almost sure to rally behind the Taliban, since America is now seen as backing the Pashtun's worst enemies. The Pashtun have ruled Afghanistan since the 18th century, and their will to fight may be steeled by the specter of marauding Northern Alliance troops--made up of Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras--attacking with U.S. warplanes in the skies above. Fearing reprisals, Pashtun families have been fleeing the north...
Over the past two weeks, one could hardly turn to the opinion page of any national newspaper without getting spooked by the frightful specter of partisan wrangling. The details of the scare story varied—here it was economic stimulus, there it was airport security legislation—but the underlying theme was always the same: the Bush administration and the Congressional GOP leadership are exploiting the current crisis to advance their political agendas...
When one reads that a business executive who works in a skyscraper is shopping for parachutes, the "shadow of fear" is no longer merely a specter but a jolt of what reality is now. Terrorists who live in the shadows need to be brought out into the light and their identity made known to the world. Only when they have been smoked out of the dim world of religious fanaticism will our shadow of fear disappear. NICK GIANNIAS Montreal...
...idea of an expanding U.S. commitment, however, is precisely what raises the specter of quagmire for critics, raising ghosts of Vietnam. The Taliban plainly are unlikely to be destroyed from the air, but Afghanistan is a wild and untamable land, and there is little reason to believe that U.S. ground troops would have greater success in subduing it than the Soviets had. Moscow, remember, was willing to sustain a far higher level of casualties than Washington might - indeed, for years the U.S. media referred to Afghanistan as the "Soviets' Vietnam...
...specter of Sept. 11 unfortunately threatens to put a damper on the party. At the insistence of overzealous parents, we will undoubtedly see a lot more Teletubbies on the streets tonight, and many fewer ninjas and G.I. Joes. Tensions after the terrorist attack leave all of America in a quandary: Do we abandon the customary revelries of Halloween out of respect for the victims of terrorism...