Word: onus
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...question is not whether we can deploy. We can deploy, there is no doubt about it now. But the election does not guarantee that we can do so in an orderly way." In other words, the U.S. must still demonstrate flexibility in the Geneva talks and put any onus for failure on the Soviets...
Almost alone among conservative columnists, moreover, he has refused to utter the ritual invocation that any departure by Reagan from right-wing dogma must be a result of his having been misled by aides. Repeatedly, Safire has been willing to put the onus for policy shifts squarely on the President. In January he wrote of what he regarded as Reagan's waffling in the State of the Union address: "He chose to be somebody else, or everybody else...
That doctrine puts a terrible onus on the ability of each to monitor the activity of the other and to see an attack coming. It also puts an almost inconceivable burden on the ability of a leader to react decisively yet wisely in a matter of minutes. That is why the superpowers have preferred to stick with a concept of stability posited on "mutual survivability," whereby each side could absorb a nuclear attack and then retaliate with devastating force. Dense Pack deployment of the MX would be a step toward a condition of "mutual vulnerability," in which each side would...
...noted with great interest, but without comment, the change in his words. "Never personally recommend" did not mean that he would never permit the settlements to be removed. The change was subtle but extremely significant. If others in Israel could be made to assume the onus for the decision, then, finally, there was at least a possibility for resolving this issue...
...nodded to them and walked into the cabin. Sadat followed. I explained the extremely serious consequences of his unilaterally breaking off the negotiations: that his action would harm the relationship between Egypt and the U.S.; that he would be violating his personal promise to me; that the onus for failure would be on him. He was adamant, but I was dead serious, and he knew it. I had never been more serious in my life. I repeated some of the arguments. He would be publicly repudiating some of his own commitments, damaging his reputation as the world's foremost peacemaker...