Word: pettiest
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...problem with all these figures is that they are useless in determining how many of the killings are political. In the climate of violence that has characterized El Salvador for decades, the pettiest disputes are settled permanently by gun or knife. In many cases the death squads have murdered people not for ideological reasons but for personal ones. In other cases, death squads have no role whatsoever. Rumors occasionally circulate about how this businessman or that official found with EM (for escuadron de la muerte) carved on his chest was actually killed by a jealous husband or business rival. Sometimes...
...Washington, Haig and the White House staff could at least avoid one another when they had no business to discuss. Thrown together on a tightly scheduled visit to Europe, they got into explosive quarrels over the pettiest matters. For example, Haig is said to have regarded it as an affront that the helicopter carrying him and his wife Patricia from Heathrow Airport outside London to Windsor Castle was far behind the Reagans' chopper. According to White House aides, he upbraided Clark and Baker on the lawn at Windsor Castle, while Queen Elizabeth II was welcoming Reagan. "He went crazy...