Word: american
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...military barracks in Tripoli, Libya. That was when Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was the villain of the month. Although Gaddafi and his family were known to be living in the barracks and although the attack killed many soldiers and some civilians -- including, Gaddafi claimed, his 18-month-old adopted daughter -- American officials were at pains to insist that they did not intend to kill Gaddafi himself. President Reagan said, "We weren't . . . dropping these tons of bombs hoping to blow that man up" -- although "I don't think any of us would have shed tears if that had happened." A senior...
However, the real roots of the assassination ban are American and idealistic, not worldly and cynical. Assassination, said Secretary of State George Shultz, defending the ban after the Libya bombing, "doesn't fit our way of thinking on how to do things." Legal adviser Sofaer says, "Americans have a distaste for official killing, and especially for the intentional killing of specific individuals...
...last week in Washington during recriminations over the botched rebellion against Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega. Those most to blame for the coup's collapse seemed to be the brave but muddled men who staged it. But congressional critics from both parties lambasted George Bush for failing to dispatch American troops to snatch the dictator and spirit him back to the U.S., where he is wanted on drug-trafficking charges. The White House in turn scolded Congress for trying to micromanage a fast-moving crisis and for hypocritically turning hawkish after earlier rejecting Administration plans for covert action against...
...Administration. Bush believed, correctly, that U.S. participation in the coup attempt would discredit the Panamanian opposition and anger Latin American countries in which the U.S. has more important interests. The President, however, has sent confusing signals by using macho rhetoric about U.S. military options. Such tough talk, designed to quiet right-wing critics, raised expectations in both the U.S. and Panama of American intervention...
...itself a prime beneficiary of the triumph of ideas over matter. The Japanese may not be also-rans in software and custom chips forever. But at a time when so many books talk only about what is wrong with the U.S., Gilder's optimism about the future of American high-tech is refreshing...