Word: swept
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...sanguinary. In a country that has experienced five coups since 1958, Saddam's 12 years in power are a record. His Baath Party has imposed stability through control of the army and a network of secret police and informers that penetrates every niche of Iraqi society. If that is swept away, simmering tensions between the Shi'ite Muslims (55% of the population), Sunni Muslims (20%) and Kurds (25%) could conceivably erupt into a communal bloodbath, fragmenting the country into another Lebanon...
...gone on to invade Saudi Arabia and the gulf states, the whole shape of the struggle could have been different. "At that time there were no American forces in the area," says Andrew Duncan, assistant director of London's International Institute of Strategic Studies. "Saddam's troops could have swept down the . gulf, toppling one state after another...
Numbering 35,000 troops in all, British regiments bearing such names as the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars sped forward into fire fights and swept through Iraqi armor concentrations without losing a single tank. In the ground war's most tragic incident, however, nine British soldiers lost their lives to friendly fire when an American A-10 tank-killer aircraft hit two armored vehicles by mistake...
During the night, B-52s pounded Iraqi positions and helicopter gunships swept the defense lines, firing rockets at tanks and artillery pieces and machine-gunning soldiers in the trenches. Allied artillery opened an intense bombardment from howitzers and multiple-launch rocket systems that released thousands of shrapnel-like bomblets over the trenches. Everything was ready for the ground troops to begin moving in the last hours of darkness, taking advantage of the allies' superior night-vision equipment...
Japan's sudden reluctance to seek profits abroad reflects the conflicting demands that have swept the country since the gulf crisis began. Japanese leaders have been torn between a constitutional ban against military action and allied insistence that the economic superpower contribute massive financial support, if not troops, to the war effort. Under these pressures, | Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu has pledged a total of $13 billion to the U.S.-led allied campaign...