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Article: words Defining moment
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- November 5, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1995 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Defining moment
"WE HAVE come to a defining moment in Bosnia," said President
Clinton on the eve of the Dayton peace talks, and it sounded solemn
enough at the time. It's only later that one starts wondering about
such sound-bytes (or sound-bites, as they are now generally spelt,
promising hours of harmless amusement to 25th-century
etymologists).
Americans, who invented the phrase, know quite well what a
defining moment is, but there's something annoyingly illogical
about it. You begin by asking what the moment is defining, then
realise in the next second that this is the wrong question. So
perhaps the President was talking about a defining moment, a time
for getting down to definitions - ...