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- <text id=89TT0386>
- <title>
- Feb. 06, 1989: From The Publisher
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Feb. 06, 1989 Armed America
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 4
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Observant readers will shrewdly connect the smiling fellow
- at right, surrounded by assault rifles, with this week's cover
- story on the proliferation of guns in America. Shrewd
- connection, but wrong. That's New Delhi bureau chief Edward W.
- Desmond, who has seen his share of these weapons and the wars
- they fuel in south Asia since his arrival last October. Two
- weeks ago, Desmond managed to fly to Kabul, the Afghan capital,
- which faces a turbulent future as Soviet soldiers withdraw and
- the rebels move in. The nine-year-old war has proved a special
- challenge to Western reporters who have sneaked in, flown in
- under fire and otherwise struggled to report a story purposely
- shrouded in mystery. Desmond's first trip inside the country
- provides a brief but penetrating glimpse at a city not yet ready
- to lay down the guns. "Next time I go it will be different,"
- says Desmond, "but how, I do not know."
- </p>
- <p> The Soviet-backed Afghan government likes to control the
- news by supplying foreign correspondents with official "guides."
- Though Desmond's assigned minders complained that it was
- unauthorized, he managed to drive a few miles out along the
- snowy Salang Highway to a new Afghan army base currently
- guarding the Red Army's exit route.
- </p>
- <p> Desmond, 30, on his first posting abroad, is not always
- under fire. He was showered with rose petals while covering the
- national elections in Pakistan that brought Benazir Bhutto to
- power. An Amherst College graduate who joined TIME as a
- reporter-researcher five years ago, he often can't avoid the
- dark side of his beat. In chronicling another election in Sri
- Lanka, Desmond spent days trying to make contact with violent
- Sinhalese rebels, whose campaign of murder frightened many
- voters away from the polls. Now back in New Delhi, Desmond will
- continue to keep TIME's eye on the disordered corners of his
- region, but hopes to spend more time close to his base. That
- will bring no shortage of hot news though. India is scheduled
- to hold its national elections by December.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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