Word: deserter
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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More than ever, that will make this a special-forces war. The stealth with which members of those units operate reduces the political risks that could fracture the U.S. coalition. But that assumes they succeed. Their record has been mixed. And in operations like Desert One, the calamitous U.S. rescue mission to Iran in 1980, they have done far more damage to U.S. prestige than to the enemy...
...bravery. We're a unit of Army journalists - to the extent that soldiers ever deserve that label - and our mission in Egypt is to put a good-news weekly paper for the troops of "Operation Bright Star," an annual U.S.-led international training exercise in the muggy desert somewhere near Alexandria. But we're also an "escort" unit, which means our real job is to make sure that the civilian press doesn't write any more bad news about the Army than can be helped...
...Awir desert, 40 km from downtown Dubai, I'm hanging on Chris Perera's every word. "The secret to good dune-bashing is to jump onto the dune, not off it," he yells into my helmet as I swing on the padded roller bars into the buggy. "Build up your speed slowly, then accelerate up the dune, taking your foot off the gas at the top, then accelerate back down the dune." He gives me a thumbs-up, and backs away. Until today, sitting in the desert heat, feeling the soar and stutter of engine revs rattle through my spine...
Aside from half-day dune buggy trips ($90), Perera's company Desert Rangers offers a range of excursions, including overnight trekking ($102, with meals) in the Hajar Mountains, sandboarding and sandskiing ($148) and kayaking in the eastern Klaba mangrove ($82); for more information, call (971-4) 346-0808. Many operators offer more genteel desert safaris. After a 30-minute drive east of the city into the desert, our group clambers into a fleet of 4x4s. There's some more dune bashing, air-conditioned this time, and after 90 minutes we arrive at base camp in time for some sandboarding...
...this crisis leads to war or to a peaceful outcome, it has fortuitously arrived at a time when the Pentagon is headed by two of the most seasoned and able leaders in years ... The pair's organizational and diplomatic skills have been strikingly evident since the earliest moments of Desert Shield, which began only a few hours after Iraqi tanks rolled into Kuwait on Aug. 2. Early the next morning, Cheney tucked a top-secret briefing file under his arm and walked to the small, heavily guarded Current Situation Room on the second floor of the Pentagon. Powell was waiting...