Word: spineless
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...American political establishment had no interest in starting other human rights expeditions in Africa—so it dithered while the Rwandan genocide was being perpetrated. At State Department press briefings, officials refused to acknowledge that genocide was occurring, despite internal documents clearly stating that it was. This spineless denial delayed the placement of U.N. troops that could have averted the bloody 100 days during which Hutu militias slaughtered at least 800,000 Tutsi citizens. Intervention was simply politically inconvenient...
...personal turning point that opened his eyes to causes larger than himself, transforming a vain jet jockey into a servant of his country. It was also a political turning point that forged his views on foreign affairs. McCain saw Vietnam as an honorable and winnable war botched by spineless politicians who tied the hands of American soldiers and betrayed their South Vietnamese allies, dishonoring the U.S. and emboldening its enemies. And those were not just knee-jerk reactions to his own traumas; McCain spent a year after his release studying Vietnam and its history at the National War College. McCain...
...herd of prize horses. "The raw meat in their mouths meant nothing to the wolves: only the murderous tearing of horseflesh mattered." More problematically, the book contains puzzling chunks in which Jiang details his pet theory: that thousands of years of farming have turned the Chinese into a spineless people who placidly accept direction from above and are too timid to seize what they want. If the country is to avoid decadence and decay, he argues, the Chinese must emulate the ferocious independence of the wolves and the nomadic Mongols who lived in harmony with them. And not just...
...American political rhetoric, even if it is only implicit, not only alienates Muslims around the world, but emboldens intolerant sects of American society. So far, this strategy has sadly shown itself to be politically successful. Being perceived as sympathetic towards Islam and Muslims is taken as evidence of spineless foreign policy where intolerance and fiery diatribes are to a candidate’s credit.Is this the sort of America we want to live in? How can a nation founded on the precepts of equality and tolerance elect leaders in part based on their perceived ability to malign a religion that...
...America,” last week, “Some believe that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they are right, so be it.” With the Iowa caucuses (where voters are assumed to be sensitive about his Mormonism) weeks away, no spineless politician would say that...