I am a South Jersey Friend and dad with a love out of outreach and a passion for looking afresh at Friends' testimonies, language and practices. I am the publisher of Quaker Quaker, a community site for Friends, and write about online publicity, organizing and design on my business site at MartinKelley.com.
Beware Shaking Hands
Recently declassified documents show that American officials didn't care about iraq atrocities or weapons of mass destruction back in the 1980s when they were still our friend. Most interesting piece: current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was the hand-picked courier boy to tell Hussein's people that U.S. economic interests in iraq were more important than any public outrage over Saddam Hussein's gassing of enemies.
The historian in charge of the National Security Archives, Tom Blanyton, gives the big picture all too often forgotten in these days of Fox News soundbites:
bq. Mr. Blanton suggested that the United States was now paying the price for earlier indulgence. "The embrace of Saddam in the 1980's and what it emboldened him to do should caution us as Americans that we have to look closely at all our murky alliances," he said. "Shaking hands with dictators today can turn them into Saddams tomorrow."
Maybe I should start collecting current pictures of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saudi and Pakistani leaders?
December 25, 2003 6:26 PM.
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