Word: commandant
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Liberation of Palestine, then and now a Marxist-oriented group headed by George Habash, who is still a power in the P.L.O. Finding the P.F.L.P. not radical enough, Abbas shortly after followed a former Syrian army officer named Ahmed Jabril into a splinter group calling itself the P.F.L.P.-General Command, which also still exists as part of the P.L.O. After being expelled from Jordan in 1971, the P.L.O., and Abbas with it, set up shop in Lebanon and grew into a major power, which, however, became enmeshed in the Lebanese civil war that began in the mid-1970s...
Despite these clinical assessments, the Dorns command affection and sympathy. Where some might find pretensions and cool blood, Brookner sees form and responsibilities: Sofka the young widow forfeiting romance to direct her family's fortunes, "like a general on the evening of a great campaign," Alfred shelving his cherished books for the life of an industrialist ("His character . . . will be a burden to him rather than an asset. But that is the way with good characters...
...consider the most radical reform. A 600-page Senate staff study about to be released recommends abolishing the JCS altogether and replacing the body with a panel of senior military officers, drawn from the ranks of generals and admirals with extensive experience as leaders of the unified command groups. Any reform is likely to be fought by the individual services and some legislators and Administration officials who fear "a Prussian-style general staff." But Admiral Crowe seems ideally suited to overcoming such obstacles. Originally a submariner, he earned a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton, and his posts have been...
...born in Haifa and educated in Damascus; a former airline hijacker himself, Abbas rates high on many Western lists of most-wanted terrorists. In 1977, Abbas helped to found the P.L.F. as a breakaway group from the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine--General Command...
Snafus in the field are exacerbated by overlays of bureaucracy, charged Goldwater. When the Marines landed in Beirut in 1982, their orders sifted through no fewer than eight levels of command. The Marines' failure to dig in properly against terrorist attack--at the cost of 241 lives--was attributed partly to signals lost or mixed up in the endless command chain. Bureaucracies inevitably breed officers who have little better to do than trip over one another. The U.S. fought World War II with 101 three-star generals and admirals; now there are 118. Observed Nunn: "It takes more admirals...