Word: shies
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...most extreme version, the operation would begin with covert CIA stimulation of a new revolt by Saddam's Kurdish and Shi'ite opponents and proceed to very overt bombing of the forces the Iraqi dictator sent to smash the rebellion. That, goes the plan, would so weaken the regime that either the rebels or Saddam's military commanders, or both, would get rid of him. In another version, the U.S. would covertly incite a military coup by Saddam's lieutenants, in part by letting them know Washington stood ready to back them up with air power, if need...
...Kurds and Shi'ites did rise again, British analysts warn, it is by no means certain that they could overcome the Iraqi regulars facing them. Saddam has 400,000 fresh troops that he kept out of the gulf war standing by, as well as two Republican Guard divisions confronting potential rebels in the north and south. He might never have to call on the three or four Guard divisions he keeps around Baghdad as a kind of personal army. Nor is it certain that American air power could turn the tide -- or even that it could be fully employed...
...officers and troops remaining may be more afraid of the Iraqi masses -- and the Kurdish and Shi'ite dissidents -- than they are of Saddam. An Arab diplomat relates a conversation that occurred when the Iraqi dictator visited his capital well before the invasion of Kuwait. Saddam, says the diplomat, told his hosts that he had no illusions: if he ever fell from power, the mobs would so shred his body that not a piece of him larger than a fingertip would survive. But, he added, he had warned his subordinates that exactly the same thing would happen to them...
...religious dictatorship would not sit well even among Algeria's fundamentalists, mostly Sunnis who do not exalt clerics to the same degree that Iran's Shi'ites do today. "The concept of theocracy is not something which has roots in Sunni society," says Professor Mary-Jane Deeb of American University's School of International Service in Washington. Algeria's former colonial ties to France also give the country a Western complexion that cannot be easily erased. Most Algerians speak French, many are exposed to European culture through French television and have relatives among their millions of compatriots now living...
Israel's invasion and subsequent occupation of the self-proclaimed security zone nine miles deep into Lebanese territory uprooted Shi'ite towns and sparked the creation of Hizballah, the radical Party of God, built up with Iranian advisers and money. Its proclaimed mission: to drive the Israelis and their Lebanese auxiliaries of the South Lebanon Army out of the country. The U.S. became a target when it moved Marines into Lebanon to support the Israeli-backed Christian government in Beirut, reinforcing Hizballah's belief that Israel's strength came from the aid and political support the Jewish state got from...