I am a great fan of William Sloan Coffin, whose death is written about here. As to the piece in the Hartford Courant itself, here are some interesting interpage connections.

“You know the axis of evil is not Iraq, Iran and North Korea,” he told an audience at Yale in 2002. “It is environmental degradation, pandemic poverty and a world awash in arms.”

He had an interesting perspective on causes. Then we have another front page article with this in its content

The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency already knew that Iran was capable of, and had done, some enrichment on a smaller scale than that announced Tuesday, said Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

It’s the “world awash in arms” part from Coffin that touches a cord. It’s not just Iran.