Word: persian
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...first week of February, and the U.S.S. Independence was steaming into the Persian Gulf bearing its complement of attack aircraft to begin the bombing of Iraq. In Washington, the U.S. national-security apparatus continued its countdown to armed conflict. The prospects for war largely depended on sensitive diplomatic negotiations centered on the U.N. Inside knowledge of those secret discussions could give an adversary or even an ally an edge over Washington, as the White House struggled to prevent countries like France and Russia from letting Saddam Hussein off the hook...
...unlikely history will forget the period, thanks to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the break-up of the Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf War. But in music, you'd think there was a jump from the upbeat Top 40 of Reagan's America--epitomized in Madonna's "Material Girl" (1984)--to the brooding alternative explosion of Clinton's '90s, marked by Nirvana's breakthrough hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991). In making that leap you'd skip both the George Bush years and the apex of a key musical genre: the power ballad...
American warplanes were practicing bombing runs from their carriers in the Persian Gulf. In Baghdad the long-suffering citizens of Iraq were resigning themselves to yet another aerial whacking. In Washington, Bill Clinton was staring at a pair of unpleasant options: bomb and be damned, or back down and be ridiculed. If ever there was a call for high diplomacy, this...
Then what? The U.S. has 28 warships, 356 planes and 33,000 troops on alert in the Persian Gulf area, costing about $100 million a month more than the U.S. was already spending on forces in the region. Clinton and Albright argue that by going this extra mile with Saddam, the U.S. will have more support the next time it calls for using force. Maybe so, now that Annan has added his prestige to a deal, but only if the world feels deeply cheated and is ready to punish Saddam...
...Americans are always reluctant to get into foreign wars, preferring neutrality and shrinking from the shedding of blood, even the enemy's. They wanted to stay out of World War II until Pearl Harbor made the choices crystal clear. Even in 1991, with 500,000 troops poised in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Senate voted only 52 to 47 in favor of attacking Saddam to drive him out of Kuwait. Americans don't like the mission to Bosnia, and they hated the intervention in Haiti...