Word: thuggish
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Still, throughout his book, he stresses the differences between himself and his thuggish “colleagues...
Abdul Rashid Dostum, the thuggish Afghan warlord, would not seem a likely student of Abraham Lincoln. But there he was, echoing the Gettysburg Address as he spoke recently to a large political gathering in northern Afganistan. His speech was a booming appeal for a future that offered Afghans "government by the people, for the people." To accompany his new rhetoric, Dostum also has a new look. The powerfully built Uzbek general has shaved his beard--his thick trademark moustache remains--bought some new neckties and found a good tailor...
Abdul Rashid Dostum, the thuggish Afghan warlord, would not seem a likely student of Abraham Lincoln. But there he was, echoing the Gettysburg Address as he spoke recently to a large political gathering in northern Afganistan. His speech was a booming appeal for a future that offered Afghans "government by the people, for the people." To accompany his new rhetoric, Dostum also has a new look. The powerfully built Uzbek general has shaved his beard - his thick trademark moustache remains - bought some new neckties and found a good tailor...
...years Saddam's elder son, the wild, thuggish Uday, was considered the heir apparent. But Uday's penchant for excess was too much even for Saddam after the son, in a fit of pique, murdered a beloved bodyguard of Saddam's in 1988; Uday was jailed for several months. He has largely recovered from a 1996 assassination attempt that has left him barely able to walk. Though he is still a feared man, he has clearly been eclipsed by Qusay, 36. Qusay, say observers in Baghdad and Washington, is a force to be reckoned with. Sober, hardworking and deferential...
...MCGIRK HAS BEEN FOLLOWING THE CAREER OF AFGHAN LEADER HAMID KARZAI FOR MONTHS AND RECENTLY SPENT A WEEK WITH HIM. He doesn't strike you as the typical thuggish warrior chieftain. He is too courtly, too intellectual. But when he was in exile in Pakistan, Hamid Karzai had an intensity that attracted all kinds of Afghans to his salons. I remember sitting at a Karzai banquet with an Afghan former communist general, a Kunduz tribal elder and a wizened chess master. Karzai listened to them as equals, and they in turn were inspired by his quiet determination. Then...