Now, of course, the dinosaur is on its feet and taking offensive action.
President Hamid Karzai called on American-led forces to apply themselves more earnestly to avoiding civilian casualties and to check intelligence reports more carefully before taking offensive action.
Mr. Panetta said that American forces were already responding to the threat "unilaterally," implying that they were taking offensive action on their own, without Iraqi troops alongside.
In his last term in Congress, Mr. Owens was one of 45 Democrats to sue President George Bush to prevent him from taking offensive action in the Persian Gulf without obtaining a Congressional declaration of war "or other explicit authority from the Congress".
More importantly, Gen. Rose established the UN Rapid Reaction Force, a heavily armed unit with more aggressive rules of engagement, designed to take offensive action if necessary to prevent hostage-taking and enforce peace agreements.
By his refusal as army commander to take offensive action against the insurgents in 1958, Chehab had earned the confidence of the Muslims.
Urged by the French to take offensive action against the Germans, the Russian commander in chief, Grand Duke Nicholas, took it loyally but prematurely, before the cumbrous Russian war machine was ready, by launching a pincer movement against East Prussia.
Hitler, bypassing the usual chain of command, telephoned Manstein directly and ordered him to take offensive action in the area.
We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take: offensive action in behalf of justice.
It is also a field where the United States has been taking provocative offensive action without having adequate defenses against retaliation.
