Word: argumentative
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...examine the Administration's and Baker's anti-timetable argument more closely. As the thinking goes, the armed groups sowing mayhem in Iraq will lay down their guns as soon as the U.S. fixes a date for withdrawal. Since any reasonable timetable for withdrawal would still preserve some kind of U.S. troop presence for the foreseeable future, Baker and Bush would have you believe that tens of thousands of insurgents, terrorists and militia members are prepared to contain their furies for months, if not years - after which time they will presumably emerge tanned, rested and more bloodthirsty than ever...
...sake of argument, let's say that the Baker-Bush position is right: the U.S. sets a timetable for withdrawal, and a prolonged lull in violence follows. Is any reasonable person prepared to argue that this would be a bad thing? If anything, a pause in fighting would pose a greater threat to the long-term prospects of the insurgents and militias than it would to the government. The combatants in the civil war feed off the fears of ordinary Iraqis, who look to the armed groups for protection against their sectarian rivals. If the violence were to suddenly stop...
...condom respectively - and the person may try maneuvers that he or she would otherwise consider foolish. In the case of seat belts, instead of a simple, straightforward reduction in deaths, the end result is actually a more complicated redistribution of risk and fatalities. For the sake of argument, offers Adams, imagine how it might affect the behavior of drivers if a sharp stake were mounted in the middle of the steering wheel? Or if the bumper were packed with explosives. Perverse, yes, but it certainly provides a vivid example of how a perception of risk could modify behavior...
...after detectives had subjected them to harsh and manipulative questioning. The one other man convicted for the murder - and the only one whose DNA was linked to the crime - has since recanted his claim that the other men were involved and now insists that he acted alone. The whole argument may seem like a stretch - it certainly did and does to the victim's family - but on Wednesday a Virginia judge accepted enough of it to rule that detectives had not honored Tice's right to remain silent and overturned his sentence after almost a decade in custody...
...Even the deaths of prominent Russians at home and abroad is being twisted to reinforce an argument that there is an enemy out there looking to hurt Russia, and that Putin's vigilance remains indispensable...