Word: defenders
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Blanc claims that the purpose of attending a university is "to learn to hone and defend our opinions." We were under the impression that our education was an instrument to help us change the world and change does not always come through debate. In the past, people have been murdered, maimed and forced to sacrifice for changes that others were only content to debate and write about, for instance the civil rights movement and last week's union protest of Harvard's hiring practices. Well-intentioned action is the flip side of well-intentioned thought. One without the other...
...hands, the lawyer pitches a tale of innocent patriotism at odds with the cold, brawler's face of his client: how a good-hearted truck driver trying to make ends meet for a wife, two daughters, a sick mother, six cats and two parrots, gave up everything to defend his brother Serbs in Bosnia; how he never did anything but "stand guard" and "carry out ordinary military orders"; how in return for risking his life, he is broke and jobless, his children are shunned and his own government is trying to make him a scapegoat. "I didn't go there...
...ways to carry them out. "I never heard Milosevic order ethnic cleansing," says Seselj, "but I can give examples of indirect invitations to do such things." The President passed those invitations through the secret police, says Seselj. They in turn invited the paramilitaries to "liberate" areas Serbia coveted or "defend" Serb-minority towns. Seselj admits his unit fought under such directives, but says that as soon as the legitimate "liberation" of a town was complete, his boys would depart. "We never took part in the looting," he insists...
That vicious, exponential math exacts a human toll long after conflict ends. Still, the notion that the U.S. should forswear the use of mines is unpopular among many at the Pentagon. "There's no easy way to defend a perimeter without land mines," an Army officer says. "But it's just politically incorrect to support the use of land mines right now." The ability to block an enemy's retreat by quickly dropping mines from the air is another advantage that some officials are loath to relinquish. "Mine opponents say it's a matter of morality and not military utility...
...purpose of attending university is, in large part, to learn to hone and defend our opinions. A protest does nothing to further this end; rather, it allows both the protester and the individual being protested to rest on simple, unrefined opinions that do not adequately account for the real complexity of the situation being considered. If the protesters had been willing to match wits with Mr. Mansfield, they certainly would have left with more subtle and intelligent arguments, and they would be better able to construct nuanced arguments in the future. Mr. Mansfield even may have refined his opinions through...