Word: pointless
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...same time, he has conducted an astute, quiet campaign to integrate Iraq's economy with those of neighboring countries and to convince Europe that the sanctions are wrong and pointless. He made a rapprochement with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia at the Arab summit in March that he hopes will quiet any regional enthusiasm to join an anti-Saddam coalition. He is playing a fresh chess match with the U.N. on weapons inspections. If he can get more favorable terms, he'll probably let them resume. That would undercut European eagerness for a war on Iraq...
When Iraq accepted the terms of the 1991 Gulf War cease-fire, it agreed to "destroy, or render harmless," all its weapons of mass destruction. The last U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq in December 1998, after obstruction by officials there rendered their work pointless. It is generally agreed that Saddam Hussein has not been behaving himself in their absence. The U.N. has collected reams of color satellite photos showing an unmistakable boom in reconstruction of Iraqi sites, some of which were weapons facilities in the past. "You can see hundreds of new roofs in these photos," says Hans Blix...
...Include several contributors who begin their advice pieces by announcing how “advice” is stupid and should never be heeded; that way, your advice book will seem truly pointless. Include writer/translator Bruce Benderson, who begins with the words, “Take my advice. What an obnoxious imperative!” Then, title your book Take My Advice...
...what of a man who has lost his job and is afraid to share his failure with those closest to him? The hero of Laurent Cantet's Time Out (L'emploi du temps) uses his enforced spare time the way he always did: driving his car from Pointless A to Pointless B, sitting in office lobbies, pretending to prepare for that big conference. Vincent (the fascinatingly opaque Aurelien Recoing) still needs to pay the bills, so he dreams himself a bigger job, sells dummy shares in his nonexistent new company to friends and family, dabbles in black-market trading. Finally...
...Then came Sept. 11, and wondering seemed pointless. The economy was critically wounded; recession seemed unavoidable. Even those stalwart American shoppers, who account for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity and whose portfolios and pocketbooks kept the 10-year economic expansion going through some pretty tough times, could hardly be expected to save...