Word: combatant
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...middle finger isn't the only digit with a message. The thumb talks too, but generally in happier tones, with an upward point indicating approval, good news or some other nicety. That pleasant gesture is thought to have sprung from the grim business of gladiatorial combat, when spectators in the Roman Coliseum would give a thumbs-up or down to determine whether a beaten competitor should live or die. What began in Rome similarly went global...
...many as 200 boys and girls are enrolled in Makdah's fighting camp - a tin hangar with an asphalt parade ground, where they learn the basics of hand-to-hand combat, firearms and Palestinian national ideology. "We teach what they don't learn at United Nations schools," says one local Palestinian official. On one recent day, some 50 schoolboy cadets gathered in Makdah's office after attending a demonstration against Israeli attacks on Gaza. He offered them a lesson they are unlikely to forget. "In the past, Jews used to kill us, and no one defended us," he explained. "Today...
...President Barack Obama prepares to green-light a plan to withdraw most U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 18 months, he'll face skepticism from some military commanders who fear the withdrawal may be too hasty to maintain the country's recent security gains. But the President ought to be reassured by the assessment of Marine Major General John Kelly, who just completed a 13-month tour as the top U.S. commander in Anbar province...
...Kelly's view echoes the consensus within the U.S. military as the Pentagon ponders how to implement Obama's order to withdraw most combat troops - about half of the 142,000 U.S. soldiers now in Iraq - by August 2010. In the tug-of-war between on-ground commanders who would like to go slower and their superiors in Washington who need more troops for Afghanistan, the President's timetable splits the difference. In fact, the Pentagon provided Obama with three options: the 16-month timetable he embraced during the campaign; the 19-month option he is expected to announce this...
...Kelly supports cutting levels of combat troops. He notes that the number of American soldiers in Anbar fell from 38,000 to 23,000 during his tour, and he could have cut even more. And those that remained changed their way of operating, encouraging Iraqis to take the lead while promising that a dedicated U.S. military unit would be standing by if the Iraqis ran into trouble and needed U.S. help. "We've never been called as a quick-reaction force since we started doing this," Kelly said. But Kelly's Baghdad commanders were leery. "I had conversations with...