Word: retrospect
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...case, though. Strong as the Arab anger was, it was not quite sufficient to shake the governments (Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria) that have made major troop commitments to the coalition. The U.S. and its European allies suffered little if any public backlash against the war. In retrospect, generals played down too much the inevitability of civilian deaths in any bombing campaign. But Westerners, while shocked, seemed to accept the explanations that the U.S. was not directly targeting civilians; that Saddam in contrast was deliberately putting them in harm's way by placing military installations in schools, homes and residential...
Furthermore, we were not comfortable dabbling in censorship, and thus chose not to screen any of the performers. In retrospect, the decision to give the comedians full reign over the length and content of their acts may not have been the best...
Unlike Lai and Watson, we chose to avoid being perceived as connected in any way with "Stop the Church," precisely because ACT-UP's protest so clearly eschewed lawful respect for a plurality of political and religious viewpoint and the freedom to express them. (In retrospect, it seems both ironic and telling that Lai has refused to condemn these infringements of freedom and openness, but at the same time, has angrily accused me of subverting intellectual discourse...
...retrospect, there was a road not taken. A trip-wire force could have been lodged in Saudi Arabia, to serve America's initial goal of deterring an invasion, and the sanctions continued nearly forever. Kuwait would be remembered, but its liberation would not have become the high-profile litmus test of U.S. resolve. That option existed until November, when the allied presence was characterized as an offensive force and the United Nations deadline of Jan. 15 was imposed...
...ironies, of course, begin to multiply as soon as a life comes unraveled: in retrospect, everything seems an augury. One night before, the local TV station had announced that the conditions -- 106 degrees heat, gale-force winds and drought-stricken hills -- were the best for a fire in 100 years. That day, at lunch, I had been talking with a friend whose mother had just died, about the pathos of going through old belongings. And when, at the optician's office that evening, my doctor stepped out to go and sniff at what he thought might be a fire...