Word: shells
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Joining the effort to down-play the assault on West Beirut, Defense Minisrter Ariel Sharon, architect of the Lebanese invasion, complained to the U.S. Government about Habib's reports to Washington that Israel was firing 1,000 shells into West Beirut for every shell fired by the Palestinians. Sharon denounced such accounts as "mendacious" and said that they were based on observations from afar...
...building we are on comes under fire. A shell whistles overhead as we rush inside. The building shakes as each shell finds its target. Another shell crashes with an earsplitting sound into the parking lot below. We race down the steps, floor after floor, afraid for our lives. This time there are no mumbled apologies as we push past the guerrillas. Once back in the hotel I have two quick Scotches...
Near a colonel's bunkered command post, soldiers fill empty shell casings with water from tank trucks. The sound of outgoing Iraqi artillery is constant, there is little fire coming from the Iranian side. Some of the men sleep beneath slanting canvas hutches. Others spread carpets on the sand and pray toward Mecca. When one enemy round explodes several hundred yards away, they continue their prayers without flinching. "During the [last] battle," says the colonel, with undisguised pride, "they were in their tanks for 36 hours, buttoned down all the time, and fighting. That...
...horseplayers were being so polite their teeth hurt." He savors "the soft afternoons under the old elms of Saratoga" and the memories of great races, like the 1941 Preakness: "Whirlaway came loping along counting the house with Arcaro sitting still as a bluepoint on the half-shell." To Smith, horses are people with four legs and wonderful names. What a pleasure to learn that a colt by the French stallion Compte de Grasse is named Mow de Lawn...
...Syrian in a crew cut was in the street when a shell hit. His right leg was blown off at the knee. He is engaged to be married. His fiancee in Syria does not know what has happened to him. He wonders if she will still love...