Word: neutralizing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...that are commonly believed to predict whether a culprit will err again. But critics argue that these standards stack the deck against a member of a minority group; they are likened to the literacy tests once used to prevent Southern blacks from voting. "Some of the criteria that sound neutral and non-racially discriminatory are in effect proxies for race," says Criminologist Marvin Wolfgang...
...been a growing dissatisfaction on the part of some Iranian officials with their country's isolation from the rest of the world. "One of the wrong things we did in the revolutionary atmosphere was constantly to make enemies," Speaker Rafsanjani recently admitted. "We pushed those who could have been neutral into hostility." Tehran has begun trying to re-establish some of its old ties. In June, after intervening on behalf of three French hostages being held in Lebanon, Iran resumed normal relations with Paris, ending nearly a year's hiatus. Last week the country quietly restored diplomatic ties with Canada...
...past several years, Iran has been busy making itself the world's odd man out: ignoring United Nations efforts to end its war with Iraq, boycotting the U.N. Security Council because of its alleged anti-Tehran bias, attacking neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf. Last week it paid the price for its self-imposed isolation. Twice it sought an international condemnation of the U.S. on an issue on which Washington would otherwise have been vulnerable, the July 3 shootdown of Iran Air Flight 655 over the gulf. But twice it came away with nothing...
Militant rhetoric aside, many analysts concluded that immediate retaliation against the U.S. was unlikely. For one thing, the Iranians appear to lack the military capability to strike an effective blow at U.S. forces in the region. Though the Revolutionary Guards' Boghammar speedboats continue to threaten neutral shipping in the crowded gulf, any attempt to confront U.S. warships patrolling in the area would be suicidal. And sponsorship of new terrorist bombings or kidnapings would only turn international public opinion against Iran, taking much of the onus...
...fired upon before unloosing their own weapons. All they need is some convincing indication that a ship or plane is approaching with hostile intent. Doubtless influencing Rogers' decision was the fact that his ship had just been engaged in hostilities. Following reports of Iranian speedboat attacks on two neutral ships, the Vincennes sent a helicopter to investigate. The Iranians fired on the helicopter, triggering a firefight that Flight 655 had the foul luck to wander into...