Word: gordian
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P.O.W.s Speaking Out The Gordian tangle of debate on ending the war has descended on the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. Holding its second annual meeting in Washington, the league, which in the past has generally backed the Administration's policies, showed signs of dividing along the lines of argument that exist in Congress: setting a withdrawal date v. trusting the President's maneuvers...
...Gordian Knot. The net effect of most of the senatorial intransigence was to defer final decisions on many issues. The buck-passing means that some battles will have to be fought again. Thus the Senate refused to give the President his Family Assistance Plan, new restrictions on imports of foreign goods or funds for continued development of the supersonic transport aircraft. Even a much-needed increase in Social Security benefits to help senior citizens keep up with the cost of living became a casualty of the deadline pressures...
...setbacks to Administration programs occurred mainly because most of the issues had become intertwined in a Gordian knot of the Senate's devising. The welfare reform, trade quotas and Social Security increase had all been meshed into a single bill by the Senate Finance Committee. Its chairman, Louisiana Democrat Russell Long, finally moved last week to strip the bill of all except the Social Security provisions-against the will of leaders of both parties. The Administration wanted all three programs and figured that Social Security was must legislation that would piggyback the other two into law. Democratic leaders, opposed...
Herbert Butterfield's chestnut is quoted twice in May's writing. Behind most international conflicts, Butterfield wrote, is "a terrible human predicament ... a terrible knot almost beyond the ingenuity of man to untie. The trouble with option diplomacy is that it makes no Gordian attempt to explain how policy could have been handled differently. "You put everyone in their place," says a critic, "and see how their options were limited to a, b, and c, and see that the war was tragic but inevitable. You can never make any criticism of American foreign policy this way." Without some analysis...
...start afresh. Only the fatuous deny that too many courts, legislatures, federal agencies and universities have grown unmindful of their duty to liberate rather than constrict. Yet in advanced countries, institutions cannot be eliminated; the infinitely complex problems of crime or poverty require organized experts. There is no Gordian knot waiting to be slashed. To yearn for apocalypse and reject the real task-to reform failing institutions-is simply to sabotage one of the world's few self-governing societies...