Word: pentagonal
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When Russia sent shells raining down on Georgia, it seemed initially as if Vladimir Putin was savagely pursuing what he saw as Russian national interests. Moscow claimed Georgian aggression against Russian loyalists in South Ossetia and has objected to both Georgia's bid to join NATO and the Pentagon's arming and training of the Georgian military. But a closer examination of the run-up to Putin's inexcusable invasion suggests that Russia's action had as much to do with its wounded pride as with its alleged impaired security...
...fact that the Taliban feel they have right on their side in this war against Christian occupiers. Afghanistan's future needs to be secured not through extensive military action but though a change in thinking at the White House and the Pentagon. A scaling down of operations that alienate civilians, like the bombings that blow up wedding parties, would be welcome, as would better intelligence. Also, the narcotics trade that props up the corruption endemic in the country's ruling bureaucracy, law enforcement agencies and judiciary must be targeted. Effective governance and education will beat the Taliban better than...
...trip was everything Obamaland wanted: Their man was firm, humble, measured, accessible and careful not to get into, as he told CNN Friday, "the business of second guessing our President" while overseas. It wasn't flawless - his campaign got itself into a minor but unnecessary disagreement with the Pentagon on Friday about why Obama scheduled then cancelled a visit to a military hospital in Germany. But most things broke his way: Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki all but mimicked his timetable for redeployment of troops; French President Sarkozy all but endorsed him; even the prayer he left in the Western...
...days leading up to 9/11, Hamdan joined a small motorcade of al-Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who drove into the mountains to watch the hijacked planes crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on satellite TV. Hamdan was also at bin Laden's side--as a driver--in the weeks that followed, while the motorcade moved from one guesthouse to the next as bin Laden and al-Zawahiri readied their remaining fighters for America's imminent invasion...
...things didn't turn out as the Administration planned. In 2004, Swift, Hamdan's Pentagon-appointed lawyer, persuaded his client to reject the government's tentative offer for a guilty plea--20 years' imprisonment in exchange for full cooperation, including testifying at the military commissions of other detainees. Together with a young constitutional-law professor named Neal Katyal, Swift built a defense that delayed Hamdan's military tribunal for years as it gradually made its way through the courts. Hamdan's time at Guantánamo was turbulent. Officials characterized him as a problematic prisoner, a rabble rouser who turns every...