Word: desertic
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...will find signs that you're returning to a different country than the one you left in August: proud, resolute, united and overwhelmed with national purpose. You will be lavished with honors, medals and ribbons, streets named after you, Desert Storm ice cream flavors. You who wrote to us of your fears of coming home should not worry. No one will spit on you. You will not be called baby killers, and we promise that you will not grow old holding a sign in a subway station: I'M A VETERAN. CAN YOU SPARE SOME CHANGE...
Time is short. The gulf war forged new alliances, shattered old ideas and forced a reconsideration of dug-in positions, giving peace at least a slim chance in the Middle East. But the new climate may not last much longer than a desert rainstorm; old habits, ways of thinking and alignments could quickly reassert themselves. So, to use a much overworked but appropriate metaphor, all parties interested in an Arab-Israeli peace process must scramble through the window of opportunity before it bangs shut...
Dante would have felt right at home in Kuwait, a desert paradise that has suddenly been transformed into an environmental inferno. Across the land hundreds of orange fireballs roar like dragons, blasting sulfurous clouds high into the air. Soot falls like gritty snowflakes, streaking windshields and staining clothes. From the overcast skies drips a greasy black rain, while sheets of gooey oil slap against a polluted shore. Burned-out hulks of twisted metal litter a landscape pockmarked by bomb craters, land mines and shallow graves scraped in the sand...
TRACKS ACROSS THE DESERT...
Less evident is the damage to the desert. Although many think of it as a lifeless place, the desert is actually a teeming, though fragile, ecosystem. Home to a variety of spiders, snakes and scorpions as well as larger creatures like camels, sheep and gazelles, it is literally held together by microorganisms, which form a thin surface crust. This crust catches the seeds of sparse shrubs and prevents surface soil from blowing away. Once it is disturbed -- by the maneuvers of a million soldiers, say -- recovery can take decades. The Libyan desert still shows tank tracks laid down in World...