The Blog

Gold Stars and Smiley Faces for Sudan

4:21 PM, Sep 30, 2009 • By MICHAEL GOLDFARB
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Obama's special envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, said this week that in dealing with rogue states like Sudan, "We've got to think about giving out cookies...Kids, countries, they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement." So, in that spirit, Ben Smith reports that "The group STAND, which is campaigning against genocide in Darfur, Twitters that it's preparing gold stars for delivery to the Embassy of Sudan in Washington." The group will also deliver smiley faces if that is your preferred method of indulging and coddling the genocidal fanatics in Khartoum, though cookies seem to be off the menu.

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