Gary E. Marsella www.garyemarsella.com
May 2008 Letters to the Editor, Stanford Magazine
May 13, 2008
I was surprised by the negative comments in the Stanford
Magazine in regard to the appointment of Donald Rumsfield
to a distinguished visiting fellow with the Hoover institution,
and the return of Condolezza Rice to the faculty at Stanford.
The following are some comments from the letters to the editor:
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Donald Rumsfield, “ a man who helped lead this country into
an unprovoked and illegal war in Iraq, and authorized the use of
torture and other forms of abuse to extract information from
prisoners…. Honoring him (Rumsfield) associates Stanford with
values rejected by civilized people everywhere.”
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Condolezza Rice, “ I cannot think of her without imagining
her hands stained red by the blood of 4,000 dead American
soldiers, thousands more wounded, and untold numbers of Iraqi
casualties. Rumsfield, “ I see no benefit to Stanford or its students
in the Hoover institution appointing a man who may well be a war criminal
as a distinguished visiting fellow. Rumsfield, “the Hoover institution
has a long and unhappy history of honoring people with serious
integrity problems-Edwin Meese comes to mind. Why should the
Stanford community tolerate this kind of damage to its reputation?
The Hoover might consider a new category of hires: distinguished
material witness or possibly distinguished unindicted war criminal.
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And the issue of Condolezza Rice… whether she is still morally
fit to occupy the most honorable position Stanford can offer - that
of teacher”
Many of these comments were written by retired professors and
others by non-acamedicians. These comments reflect serious
errors by these left wing commentators. When will the liberals
recognize the road to the war in Iraq? They conveniently ignore
the comments by 9/11 co-chairman Tom Kean at a press conference
to introduce the report. He said directly:” there was no question
in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.”
The comments to the Editor reflect, in my opinion, bias thinking
driven by an anti-Bush agenda which reflects the division in this
country with very little hope of a middle ground.
Gary Marsella
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