Word: tomahawk
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Until last Sunday. Then the President shocked many veteran Iraq watchers by publicly embracing the bill and promising to "do what we can" to bring down Iraq's perpetually menacing dictator. As Clinton told the world that he had aborted the launch of hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles, his Iraq policy seemed to wear a stern new look. Was this goodbye containment, hello replacement? Not exactly. Clinton made it clear the reason for aborting military action last week was to preserve unfettered inspection of Iraq's arsenal, the one semi-working mechanism for keeping Saddam's nasty ambitions in check...
...choices last Saturday, the Clinton Administration was just about to pull the trigger on the least-bad option: a punishing raid. Navy Hawkeye radar-warning planes were surveying the skies as dusk fell over the Persian Gulf. Down below, ship crews donned combat helmets and gave final adjustments to Tomahawk cruise missiles and F-14 and F-18 warplanes readied to attack. Air Force F-16s lined up their high-speed antiradiation missiles to target Baghdad's air defenses. "We were cocked, loaded and ready," a top Pentagon offiCIAl said. H hour was 60 minutes away...
That, of course, is the question that has been vexing Clinton for six years. Since taking office, he has pursued a policy aides call "keeping Saddam in his box." But he refuses to stay put. Clinton tried peaceful diplomacy, but Saddam just signs and cheats. He tried Tomahawk diplomacy; Saddam just ducks and ignores 'em. Even as Clinton last week charted a sustained bombing campaign that one offiCIAl likened to a "slow, soaking rain," no one suggested that it would rid the world of Saddam. The goal of the strikes was more modest and less satisfying: to "degrade" Iraq...
However, it is foolish to believe that war has been completely transformed from the bloody battles of the trenches to surgical smart-bombs and Tomahawk missiles...
...Tomahawk cruise missiles one could buy for that amount...