Wolfowitz To Rule World (Bank)

by DavidCorn(reposted)

Wed, Mar 16, 2005 1:21PM

First George W. Bush picks UN-basher John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations. Then he nominates Karen Hughes, a champion spinner who has little foreign policy experience, to be under secretary of state in charge of enhancing the United States' image abroad. Next, Bush taps Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to run the World Bank.

The Wolfowitz nomination is a win for the Pentagon but a loss for the world. Wolfowitz's achievements as a warmonger may say little about his views on international development, but his record on Iraq is one of miscalculation and exaggeration. And the poor of the world deserve a World Bank president with better judgment.

A leading neocon, Wolfowitz was a chief cheerleader for the war in Iraq--even before 9/11. In the first months of the Bush administration, Wolfowitz advocated toppling Saddam Hussein by sending in US troops to seize Iraq's oil fields and establish a foothold. Then, according to Wolfowitz, the rest of the country would rise up against Hussein. As Bob Woodward reported, then-Secreatry of State Colin Powell called this idea "lunacy."

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http://www.davidcorn.com/2005/03/wolfowitz_to_ru.php

§ WOLFOWITZ'S SORDID PAST

by Tim Shorrock (reposted)

Wed, Mar 16, 2005 1:25PM

So its official now: Paul Wolfowitz, neocon extraordinaire and one of the principle instigators of the Iraq war, has been named to head the World Bank. From that position, one of the most hawkish members of the Bush administration can wreak economic havoc on countries he left out of his grand plan to transform Iraq and the Middle East into zones of peace, tranquility and advanced American-style capitalism.

Key to his appointment, we're told, is his background in Asia, where he was the top US diplomat during the Reagan administration. According to the the Associated Press:

Administration supporters of Wolfowitz said Wednesday he is suited for the World Bank post and pointed to his management experiences at the Pentagon and his diplomatic experience at the State Department. He had served as assistant secretary of State for east Asia during the Philippinetransition to democracy. He also serves as U.S. ambassador to Indonesia.

So what is that record? Well, that's something I've delved into in detail for numerous publications when Wolfowitz was first nominated as Deputy Secretary of Defense back in 2001. I had the great privilege to cover Wolfowitz when he presided over Asian policy during the Reagan administration, at a time when the United States, in the name of anti-communism, provided military and economic aid to some of the worst tyrants in Asian history. As I wrote in a lengthy piece in Foreign Policy in Focus,

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http://timshorrock.blogspot.com/2005/03/wolfowitzs-sordid-past.html

§BREAKING NEWS: Paul Wolfowitz to Head World Bank

by Steve Clemmons (reposted)

Wed, Mar 16, 2005 1:26PM

What an Orwellian nightmare. Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank. John Bolton at the United Nations.

President Bush, why did you go to Europe again?

I have a message for many of the progressive and centrist voices who were advising John Kerry and providing general foreign policy punditry before the election. Many of you said that neocons were going down -- that Iraq had been a disaster -- that America was at its limits and everyone could see that.

You might recall that I said that there was no empirical evidence that neocons had suffered at all from the consequences of their role in making foreign policy and that I (and a few others) expected the neoconservative grip on the helm of American foreign policy to remain tight and formidable.

You scoffed. This is not an "I told you so" moment -- but I do believe that progressives and centrists need to realize that this is not just a game where the other side gets to dominate for a while -- and our team will get to call the shots in a couple of years.

There is something radically different about this time. In political science jargon, this is a period of major, dramatic discontinuity.

Stop underestimating the impact of these people and what is going on.

That is what Senator Feingold, Senator Chafee, Senator Lugar, Senator Hagel and others need to weigh.

Do they want to keep empowering this neoconservative machine?

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http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000382.html

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