Word: afflictions
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...answer session, welcomed "the reduction of British troops in Iraq" and "a mission partly accomplished in Basra," but suggested that aspects of the insurgency in the country could never be appeased. Moreover he foresees a need for fresh commitments by Britain and other powers as terrorism and tyranny afflict populations in Africa and the Middle East. "Blair will be gone in three months' time," he said. But his successor "will have to confront very similar problems in different parts of the world...
...Hanssen, the FBI agent who for a couple of decades enriched himself by passing classified documents to the Soviet Union as well as to its heirs and assigns. When he was arrested in 2001, his case seemed to be just another of those fairly routine lapses in security that afflict all great powers. Some people will spy. Some of them will get caught. Life tends to go on. Who knew how entertainingly, if sometimes scarily, bent Hanssen - brilliantly played in director Bully Ray's film by Chris Cooper...
Although there are exceptions (Somalia is one), civil wars are more likely to afflict countries that are divided by ethnicity, religion and/or language. (Think of Bosnia as well as Iraq.) They are also more likely to break out where a substantial proportion of the population is male and from 15 to 29 years old. And, interestingly, mountainous countries (Afghanistan) are more likely to suffer civil war than flat countries...
...encourage you to forgive this error. There are obviously mitigating circumstances at work which seem to afflict even seasoned professionals. Errors are the fertile fields from which learning grows. By the way, I didn’t find that quote out there anywhere—in that form, anyway. But a quick search for “learning from your mistakes” indicates that a few minutes with a simple thesaurus yields a phrase pretty similar to mine...
Until recently, there was no way to unravel these crucial differences. Exactly what gives us advantages like complex brains and the ability to walk upright--and certain disadvantages, including susceptibility to a particular type of malaria, AIDS and Alzheimer's, that don't seem to afflict chimps--remained a mystery...