Word: mountainous
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Ordinarily, the rugged mountain towns of Morenci and Clifton are close-knit in an almost feudal way, drawn together by their common employer. Morenci (pop. 2,700), dominated by the huge white pit of the copper mine and the two monster smokestacks of the smelter, is the archetypal company town. Phelps Dodge, which has enjoyed a reputation as a generous employer, owns the water and electric utilities, the county hospital, the gas station, the motel, the bowling alley, the high school and a new Spanish-style shopping center featuring the Phelps Dodge Mercantile Co. (easy credit terms). Workers earn...
...retaliation for attacks on U.S. personnel. The Reagan Administration argued that to protect the 1,200 U.S. Marines headquartered at Beirut International Airport, as well as U.S. diplomats in the capital, American forces had to help the inexperienced but determined Lebanese Army hold on to Suq al Gharb. The mountain village had taken on enormous symbolic importance for the Christian-dominated government of President Amin Gemayel. If the army failed at Suq al Gharb, the Syrian-backed forces might be in a position to replace Gemayel's government with a regime that would be more to Syria's liking. Inevitably...
...time, the Druze formed an alliance with the Maronite Christians under the leadership of a Druze emir. In the 19th century, the aggressively ascendant Maronites sought to consolidate their power over Lebanon. Alarmed, the Druze rose against them. In a still vivid 1860 incident, the Druze set fire to mountain villages and slaughtered thousands of Christians. The present unrest is a reminder of that longstanding and sometimes bloody friction...
They gather in remote valleys and mountain strongholds, and only a handful of initiates are permitted to know their mystic rites or to read their "Six Books of Wisdom." Their faith is a baffling hybrid of Greek philosophy and Muslim mysticism; they revere Jesus, Moses and Muhammad equally. Though their sect is technically an offshoot of the Isma'ili Muslim sect, it shares ideas with Chinese and Indian religions. Such are the shadowy outlines of the mysterious Druze, a self-enclosed feudal group famous for its autonomy and military prowess...
...assistant judges, established by Vermont's 18th century constitution, are a remnant of the hostility toward lawyers that many of the original colonists brought with them from England. That mistrust persists to this day. Vermonters are fond of pointing out to strangers that in the Green Mountain State's peculiar twang, the word lawyer comes out sounding like "liar...