Word: retrospect
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...prewar Iraq policy on autopilot. The Administration had a big investment in its belief that Saddam -- whom Bush called "worse than Hitler" after the invasion -- could be cajoled into better behavior. So the U.S. pulled its diplomatic punches in a way that not only seems like appeasement in retrospect but also struck some as such at the time. If the U.S. had few tools to influence Saddam's prewar behavior, as Bush aides now acknowledge, then perhaps little would have been lost had they just written Iraq off, but Bush did not even debate the question...
...year, 1939, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was condemned by many U.S. Senators and editorial writers, and Gone with the Wind stoked a furor with its use of the word damn. Today, other tendencies in Golden Age movies -- the stereotyping of blacks, gays and other minorities -- seem vicious in retrospect. Back then, the middle class was in charge, and they made fun of those below. Now films are a minority pleasure, so the majority is the butt of harsh humor...
...retrospect, Bell said, he might have beenable to campaign better for diversity from withinthe Law School...
Whether it was because we were young or the movies were young or the world was at least youngish, old-fashioned Hollywood history was exhilarating. In retrospect there is something alarming about its simplicities and the enthusiasm we brought to it. It is the great virtue of this grandly scaled yet deliriously energetic movie that it reanimates that long-ago feeling without patronizing it -- and without making us think we will wake up some day once again embarrassed...
...retrospect, the phenomenon makes sense: the thyroid gland tends to concentrate iodine ingested by the body, and radioactive iodine was released in bulk during the accident. Moreover, radiation is known to cause thyroid cancer, and children are especially susceptible. But previous studies of nuclear accidents in Britain and the U.S. and studies of nuclear-weapons testing in Japan and the South Pacific have failed to prove a fallout-cancer correlation conclusively. The probable difference this time: the radiation was more highly concentrated and hit a heavily populated area...