Word: ratcheted
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...stop it with a combination of talks and coercion. Iran is a signatory to the NPT, which gives it the right to enrich uranium for energy purposes. But because Iran violated NPT transparency requirements, the Security Council has punished it with a series of limited sanctions. Efforts to ratchet up the U.N. sanctions, first imposed in December 2006, have thus far come to nothing...
...days on campus are host to the emotional roller coaster that is the morning of Housing Day—and upperclassmen in the 12 undergraduate Houses plan to ratchet up the enthusiasm among their new housemates...
...like new Orleans ever needs an excuse to party, but the city's first Super Bowl win provided the best reason to ratchet up Mardi Gras a week early. It was a long-overdue celebration--not just for the Saints, after 43 years of bag-over-their-heads futility, but also for the Big Easy itself, after four-plus years of post-Katrina pity parties. It was a night to stop feeling sorry. New Orleans is still a high-poverty, high-anxiety mess. Some of its neighborhoods have barely begun to rebuild, and it's still outrageously vulnerable to coastal...
...Commerce Department announced - to rejoicing in the media, on Wall Street and in the White House - that the economy had grown at a 3.5% annual pace in the third quarter. By late December, GDP had been revised downward to a less impressive 2.2%, and revisions to come could ratchet it down even more (or revise it back up). The first fourth-quarter GDP estimate comes out Jan. 29. Some are saying it could top 5%. If it does, should we really believe...
...Therein lies the irony of Obama's downsizing effort: he needs to ratchet up conflicts at first - by sending more troops to Afghanistan and perhaps pushing new sanctions against Iran - to gain the diplomatic muscle to cut deals that don't look like abject American defeats. It's a risky strategy, since there's no guarantee that the bigger sticks will work, and if they don't, pulling back will be even harder. But it's a gamble Obama may have to take. The harsh truth is that the U.S. is significantly weaker in the Middle East now than...