Word: vacuums
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Taliban is surging into the vacuum created by Karzai's government, which is based on patronage rather than competence, coupled with the international community's often bungled and chaotic distribution of aid. One indication of how far the Taliban have come: this summer, Mullah Omar tried to consolidate his grip on his unruly commanders with a 13-page Code of Conduct (among the rules: no senior government officials are to be executed without his say-so, and civilian casualties must be minimized when attacking foreign troops). In large swathes of the southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Zabol, Oruzgan, Paktia...
...Unfortunately, the liberation of Iraq left a vacuum. In this vacuum have come men who call themselves the guardian of man. But they have killed millions. They have done this in the name of religion, although the Koran forbids killing." - During the annual Forum 2000 in Prague where global participants meet to discuss key issues facing civilization...
...South Side of Chicago, gangs like the Folks Nations, the Gangster Disciples and others have begun to erode. The power vacuum is being filled by gang subsets, wannabes and factions with weak leadership. "Now you have a lot of renegades, and 70% of the young men are on the defense," explains Tio Hardiman, gang mediation director for CeaseFire, an antiviolence organization that has been replicated in several cities. "So you have shooters all over the place...
...which it is legal to carry visible weapons in public. But every gun-bearing protester requires the attention of the Secret Service and the local and state police who reinforce their efforts. "If the local police are drawn away to deal with these fools, then there's a vacuum somewhere," Petro says. "Perhaps one of those cops was supposed to be in a critical place where he or she could have stopped someone from doing something to the President. That's a real problem...
That kind of military unreadiness makes Iraqis nervous, as much as they want the U.S. out. Opinions on the street are heated and mixed. Some who want the U.S. to leave soon say a delay would postpone the probable power vacuum and accompanying bloodbath, which they hope will be short-lived. But that is the very reason others say it's not time for the U.S. to leave, because Iraqi security forces aren't ready and Iraqi politicians - pampered as they are patriotic - don't yet recognize that the country isn't prepared to go it alone. (See pictures...