Word: pretexts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...pursuing his reformist goals via a consensus achieved behind-closed-doors with the conservative religious leadership. It's a high-stakes political gamble that is likely to restore Khatami's standing among ordinary Iranians, and undermine the hard-liners who cling to the ideology of "revolutionary unity" as the pretext for their unpopular policies - and are therefore terrified of being exposed as being at odds with an overwhelmingly popular president...
Three days of Palestinian attacks that have so far killed 30 Israelis may be the pretext for President Bush postponing his anticipated Mideast policy address, but they're certainly not the only reason for the delay. Even before this week's bombings, two things would have become abundantly clear to the President: First, there is no agreement among his top aides on what policy course to follow, much less among Washington's allies in the Arab world and Israel; and second, the Bush compromise proposals being floated had already been pronounced dead-on-arrival both in Israel and the Arab...
...When Nariman fractures an ankle, Coomy, a miserable woman who blames him for her mother's death, banishes her stepfather from his own house on the pretext that she cannot care for him. Like King Lear, the elderly patriarch is forced to seek the generosity of his progeny. Luckily for him, his youngest daughter, a kind soul named Roxana, welcomes her parent, despite the fact that she dwells in a tiny tenement in Pleasant Villa with her husband and two sons...
...message is harsher. The funniest poster read: "Peace for the World, Pretzels for Bush." Others called him a "war monger" who was "not welcome," his face circled in red and bisected by a slashing red line. Some placards accused him of slaughtering the innocents of Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism and of preparing for the incineration of Iraq in "Phase II." You might have thought it was not the American President flying in for a chat, but Genghis Khan and Mussolini rolled into one. So much for the theatrics of globalized protest as perfected in Seattle, Prague...
...President Vladimir Putin gambled that signing on to the war on terrorism would work to Russia's strategic advantage in the Caucasus; instead Shevardnadze appears to have outmaneuvered him by using the campaign against al-Qaida as a pretext to invite the Americans in. If the U.S. military sets up shop there, it will be read as the geopolitical equivalent of getting Russia evicted from its own backyard - and a crafty Georgian move to turn Russia's cooperative attitude towards with President Bush into an opportunity to decisively break free of Moscow's influence. The personal relations between Presidents Bush...