Word: tactical
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...time. Clearly, he was trying to deflect attention from a very real political problem--the absence of weapons of mass destruction--to the question of whether Wilson, a supporter of John Kerry's campaign (and a distressingly flamboyant fellow), could be trusted. This is a standard political tactic and, arguably, fair game in matters of electoral politics--but perhaps not in matters of war and peace. No doubt, the battle against Kerry seemed more immediate to Rove, who was immersed in it, than the battle against the insurgency...
...number of states and universities are protesting the Sudanese government's apparent complicity by divesting from companies that do business there. Acting New Jersey Governor Richard Codey said he will sign a bill passed last week doing just that, making his state the first to carry out such a tactic. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich last month approved a similar bill, which will take effect in January and also forbids the state to place public money in banks that deal with foreign companies operating in Sudan. (It is illegal for U.S. firms to do work in Sudan.) The two laws will...
What explains the appeal of suicide attacks in Iraq? For one thing, using oneself as a weapon can be a relatively effective tactic against an enemy with far superior firepower. And extremist Muslim suicide bombers believe that their sacrifice guarantees them "martyrdom" and a passport to paradise. (That said, suicide attacks aren't unique to Islamist insurgencies. Sri Lanka's mostly Hindu Tamil Tigers have probably conducted more such attacks than any other single group...
Robert Pape, author of a book about suicide terrorism, Dying to Win, says the tactic has historically been used when two conditions are met: first, insurgents feel they are fighting foreign troops in places they regard as their homeland (Osama bin Laden, for example, has railed against U.S. bases in the Arabian Peninsula); and second, when the occupiers come from a different religious background, insurgents are able to paint them as subjugators of their faith and its followers. Those conditions, it turns out, co-exist prominently in the Muslim world today, particularly in the Middle East. --With reporting by Aparisim...
...with his revolver tucked into the dashboard. Linked by deep, zigzag trenches, Gon Kha's bunkers look down upon a handful of fortified U.W.S.A. positions, the closest about 500 meters away. Around 800 U.W.S.A. soldiers charged up Gon Kha's steep, unforested flanks, sometimes in broad daylight?a suicidal tactic even for the battle-hardened Wa. Yawd Serk claims that some were drugged?a search of U.W.S.A. bodies, he says, revealed pills of methamphetamine, a powerful narcotic generally known by the Thai name yaba (crazy medicine). Others were simply too young to know better. "Some of their soldiers must have...