Word: beirutization
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Suddenly the withdrawal of U.S. Marines from Lebanon began to gather momentum, and by the end of last weekend it was just about over. Wave after wave of Sea Knight and Sea Stallion helicopters ferried equipment and supplies from a coastal landing pad near Beirut International Airport to the waiting ships of the U.S. Sixth Fleet outlined, gray on gray, on the horizon. Nudged by a forklift truck, a long-barreled 155-mm howitzer trundled slowly down a jetty and disappeared, like Jonah into the whale, inside a landing craft; it was followed by a procession of Jeeps and other...
...football and watched the play-by-play artillery exchanges between rival Lebanese forces. Using sophisticated electronic equipment for pinpointing artillery targets, some passed the time making a sweepstakes of the hits and misses, as Lebanese shells exploded in the nearby mountains. Watching the Shi'ite residents of a Beirut suburb, Second Lieut. John La Torre remarked ruefully, "I guess they're just like other people, except that they've had a civil war going on for most of their lives...
...snipings, kidnapings and crossfire that recur in the mountains between Christian and Muslim militias. Part of this legacy is a penchant for violence, a belief that the gun as much as the cross is a source of salvation. Says Professor Majid Fakhri of the American University of Beirut: "There is something very medieval about the Christian outlook. A type of feudalism exists in which politics and religion are intertwined in a literal...
...given period of time and try to come up with the single moment, the headline, by which the world may be characterized, stopped in its spin. In the past couple of weeks, the press has stood chest-high in choices. In Lebanon: one more last battle for Beirut; the disintegration of the Gemayel government; the pull-out of the U.S. Marines. In the Soviet Union: the death of Yuri Andropov and the succession of Konstantin Chernenko; a funeral in red. In Iowa: the small beginnings of an American presidential election; the first funny hats and toots of the horns...
What should we lead with? What matters most? Let us concede from the start that the problem is subjective, that whatever choice we settle on will be formed more by habit than by a command of history; the press is not in control of history. Getting bored with Beirut? It's not unheard of (if you don't live there). Every few weeks another upheaval; the familiar picture of a crushed Mercedes, a balcony split open like stale cake. One hears that the American people are growing tired of the Middle East as a whole...