Word: sword
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...labor." Mondale indignantly replies that there is nothing so "special" about the groups he courts. Women, blacks, labor and the elderly, he says, are a majority of all people in the country. But the charge clearly has hurt. Says one Democratic Senator: "The special-interest rap is the Sword of Damocles hanging over Mondale's head...
Most political figures try to avoid controversy. Some have controversy thrust upon them. But Interior Secretary James G. Watt does things differently. He thrusts himself upon controversy with the fervor of an ancient Roman hurling himself on his own sword...
...this lopsided power is a decidedly two-edged sword in terms of American regional policy. On the one hand, the U.S. can utilize enormous force mere miles from the Central American coast. A single large aircraft carrier (of which there were sometimes three, and never less than one, in the Caribbean while I was there) possesses more airpower than all of Central America combined. The Nicaraguan and other governments in the region are fully aware of this. And no matter what these officials may say in public, it is impossible for them not to take seriously the kind of high...
...this leads to the other side of the sword. We must not misuse this enormous power against nations like Nicaragua. On a pragmatic level, even vastly superior naval forces are vulnerable to some kinds of stealthy attack, like the Exocet missiles used against Britain in the Falklands conflict. But on a much broader, moralistic plane, it would be simply wrong to abuse our strength, even if there were a reason to use it at all. Reminding unfriendly regimes of American power is fully within the legitimate parameters laid down in the Constitution, and recognized by international law. Attacking nearly defenseless...
...logic of exclusive devotion, swoon into a passion whose fulfillment is violent death. In Merry Christmas, the viewer is thrown al once into the sadomasochistic excess of Oriental machismo. Here, every gesture of discipline, compassion, rage and honor is expressed by the blade of a Japanese officer's sword. Firing squads shoot blanks at condemned men; Japanese soldiers are decapitated as part of the hara-kiri ceremony; Geneva conventions are defied with a twitch of the captain's jaw muscle-all as ancient rituals of purification...