Abraham D. Sofaer describes a dinner with then-American ally Tariq Aziz of Ba'athist Iraq:

After everyone had feasted on the delicious Middle Eastern buffet...Aziz spoke. He started out brilliantly, explaining why Iraq and the U.S. ahd mutual interests, including the need to prevent the Gulf from being overrun by religious militants. At the same time, he stressed, the West must allow Arabs to achieve economic and social progress, and the self-respect that comes from such achievement...A successful future for Arabs depended on their being trained to modernize their societies, and on being disciplined[,] not degenerate.

...Then, like a fighter pilot on a kamikaze mission, he veered off into the jingoistic aspects of the Arab nationalist line...The "Arab nation" must work together and not permit artificial borders, drawn by the Western powers, to condemn them to be divided. Through solidarity, Arabs could reclaim their glory as a civilization, and all that was rightfully theirs, including of course Israel. Some of those present supported Aziz in these myopic views; others had heard this Arab nationalist line often enough not to get upset by its excesses. Not so Donald Rumsfeld, who rose to speak after Aziz had concluded.

...Mr. Rumsfeld asked Aziz directly: "Do you really think the way to achieve what you are attempting is through ethnic solidarity? Are you concinved that you have more in common with all Arabs than with others who are non-Arab but share a vision of hope and decenecy for all peoples? Is it possible that the quest for Arab solidarity is driving the Arab world to seek alliances that are artificial, or based on self-defeating and costly hatreds?"

Aziz was flabbergasted. For what seemed a long time, he said nothing. The room fell into awkward silence. "Arab solidarity is a necessity."

...Mr. Rumsfeld might as well have been speaking to a robot. He had offered an ethical, rather than ethnic, solidarity, suggesting: "Tariq, my friend, don't you think you have more in common with me, and with many of the people in this room, than with many if not most of the Arabs in the world? The values that ensure political and economic progress are universal, not ethnic." But Aziz could not accept this offer. He had become a comitted Ba'athist, determined to attempt to achieve progress through a combination of nationalism, socialism, and racism.

As soon as the article is out of subscription-only exclusivity, read it. Donald Rumsfeld was doing more than accommodation in the mid-1980s when he shook Ba'athist hands: he was at least trying to warn the Near East's most modern, secular state of its inevitable doom, understood today as bloody ruin by a murderous dictator. On one hand, these very scenes are likely playing out in private meetings between America and dictatorial, strategic ally Pakistan; Pervez Musharraf claims his survival depends on authoritarian measures and in spite of the Islamist threat, we know better. On the other hand, it's comforting to know that while regional Ba'athism shows every sign of complete collapse the dreams of a pluralist, free-market Iraq can finally be realized - and under the right conditions.