Word: firsthand
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Four-star general Walter (Dutch) Kerwin, who helped pioneer the U.S. military's historic shift to an all-volunteer force in the 1970s, had seen firsthand the problems that could plague a conscripted army fighting a modern war. Kerwin, who died at 91 on July 11, was the Army's personnel chief during the Vietnam War, grappling with draftees deserting, abusing drugs and even murdering unpopular commanders. With draftees' tours limited to 12 months, military units lost their vital cohesion. In order to help "bring this level of indiscipline down," as he told Congress at the time, Kerwin drafted plans...
...Obama gave no indication that what he had seen firsthand in the two hot spots had changed his thinking, only that it had reinforced it. He did applaud the tentative steps that have been made in quelling the violence in Iraq and in bringing political stability to the country. But he stressed that "the U.S. military can't be there forever," and noted that Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, have themselves become more vocal in calling for a definite timetable for U.S. withdrawal. "The message we heard from Iraq's leaders is that they're ready...
This capitulation is perhaps a more important moment in U.S. history than it first appears. I have a theory: a country enjoys Abba's music in inverse relation to its own global significance. I observed this firsthand growing up in the world's most Abbaricious country, Australia. In 1976, 54% of my compatriots watched the local TV special The Best of Abba. That's as many of them as watched the moon landing. The album of the same name is still Australia's best-selling ever...
...Washington's worst-kept secrets is that Senator Barack Obama is planning a "surprise" visit to Baghdad in the next few days - the better to refine his Iraq policy. It's a great idea: Anybody hoping to be President of the United States should experience, firsthand, the impact of American policy on Iraq and Iraqis. But just how much can Obama expect to see and hear of Iraq while in Baghdad? If he lets the U.S. military or the American embassy in Baghdad plan his itinerary, the answer is: not much...
Over the next years, I learned firsthand that, sadly, withholding information was routine for the FAA. Fortunately, the Boeing Co. made similar statistics public in a study that said, "If, as we expect, air traffic is to double in the 1990s, we need to reduce by half our accident rate just to hold...