Word: wars
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...auspicious day for the people of northern Sri Lanka. They were eagerly waiting to vote in the first presidential election since the Sri Lankan Civil War between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan Government came to an end in May 2009. But what followed was a crisis that requires international attention...
...ruling party candidate, Mahinda Rajapakse, asked the people to show gratitude for bringing the 30-year war to an end, and to strengthen his mandate to continue his policies. A coalition of opposition parties offered former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka as their common candidate and asked for a mandate to start a reconciliation process with the Tamils in the north. They also demanded the abolishment of the executive presidency, which is powerful enough to overrule decisions made by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, in order to empower the Parliament to be more responsible to the people by enacting...
...there. On election day, people in the camps for internally displaced people in northern Sri Lanka waited in vain for the buses that were supposed to bring them to their polling stations. The bomb blasts that rocked some areas in the north reminded them of the horror of the war that ended just few months ago and scared many voters away. Fear brought voter turnout down to 20 percent in the north. But 70 percent out of those who ventured out to vote chose Fonseka’s cause. That sent the south a strong message that people...
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates flies around the world to war zones and allies, to China and Russia and Suriname, on a Cold War relic called the Doomsday Plane. Forged in the 1970s by Boeing, it was designed to stay aloft even in the midst of nuclear war. It's an airborne Pentagon. The plane is so heavy that it needs refueling in midair on long flights. The Air Force crew aboard told me that on occasion, the fuel nozzle from the floating tankers has smashed through the pilots' windshield like an angry space creature...
...plugs and portals and a lacquered table at which the relaxed Secretary sat in jeans, loafers and a pressed button-down, on the way back home from Afghanistan and Iraq. We'd been talking about the stress of congressional hearings, the burden of sending young men and women to war, and just as our conversation was drawing to a close, he said, "I always used to tell people that Texas A&M football caused me more stress than any job I've ever had. And they always thought I was exaggerating." I expressed disbelief, but he stood by the statement...