Word: patroller
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...every other alternative for taming Gaddafi. Said President Reagan, addressing a meeting of lawyers on Wednesday: "We tried quiet diplomacy. We tried public condemnation. We tried economic sanctions. And, yes, we tried a show of military might (the Sixth Fleet's skirmish in the Gulf of Sidra with Libyan patrol boats and missile batteries last month). But Gaddafi intensified his terrorist war, sending his agents around the world to murder and maim innocents...
When the Sixth Fleet struck at Libyan air-defense batteries and patrol boats a fortnight ago without suffering a single casualty, America's top military brass celebrated more than just a victory over Muammar Gaddafi. The Pentagon offered the Navy's demonstration of high-tech firepower as a telling retort to an increasingly restive band of congressional critics who accuse the military of building "gold-plated" weapons that will turn out to be duds in combat. Like Libya's radar transmitters, the Pentagon's detractors were silenced, but only for the moment...
More serious doubts surrounded the Harpoon missiles launched by the Navy cruiser Yorktown in a night action. At first the Navy claimed that a Libyan patrol boat 38 miles away had been hit. But officials later backed off, admitting that the cruiser may have been shooting at a "mirage." If the gunboat was for real, ask critics, did the Harpoons (cost: $944,000 each) miss? And if the Yorktown was shooting at a mirage, what does that say about the $1 billion cruiser's complex, highly sensitive Aegis radar defense system...
...sustained diplomatic initiatives, in the Middle East or elsewhere, are hardly a foundation for an effective policy, especially against terrorism. Nor does the battle of Sidra provide much of a guide for retaliation when the source of the threat is not as easy to identify as a speeding patrol boat nor as simple to locate as a beaming radar installation...
Navy warplanes firing missiles at Libyan patrol boats. Army helicopters ferrying troops into the jungles of Central America. American might was unleashed and on display last week, resonating with echoes of fights for right and freedom from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. As the images of far-flung war flickered over television screens, Americans could hardly be blamed for humming a bar or two from the Marines' Hymn--but not too loudly and more than a bit nervously...