Elanger (NYT) on de Mello and Younes: "Pray for Me"

[Hand]

Steven Erlanger knew Sergio Vieira de Mello and Nadia Younes, the two major UN officials killed in Baghdad. Their deaths are a terrible loss to the cause of world peace. Just how much of a loss? Huge.

"Sergio and Nadia lived lives of sacrifice and substance. Their deaths both shame and mock the armchair warriors, the television talk-show mudwrestlers, the pontificators, the manipulators and the simplifiers. Their deaths are a reminder that imperium, no matter how benign its intent, is never altruistic, and calls forth its own responses. And their lives are a reminder that it is just possible to do some small good in this rank, sorry, blood-drenched world."

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