Wolfowitz in Banker's Clothing

The most famous deputy defense secretary in the history of my memory is Dubya's choice to head up the World Bank.

Comments

[Jim Henley]

For my part, I'd much much rather stick Wolfowitz in the Bank than the Pentagon or White House. I wonder what we should call the mea culpa film due 20 years from now?

[Brian]

Yeah, the new gig keeps him far away from "planning" any more military adventures. It's a Good Thing.

[Josh]

This choice is worth it just to see the reaction from the anti-globo crowd. Maybe this is Bush's plan to kill off Chomsky, via heart attack.

[gaius marius]

coming on the heels of feith and bolton being moved out of washington, you have to think that this may be the long-awaited and long-overdue housecleaning in response to the stovepiping and lying that led up to iraq. wolfowitz will be a far less important figure in the world bank than he was in DoD.

[Mark S.]

coming on the heels of feith and bolton being moved out of washington, you have to think that this may be the long-awaited and long-overdue housecleaning in response to the stovepiping and lying that led up to iraq. wolfowitz will be a far less important figure in the world bank than he was in DoD.

Or, more likely, the WH's attempt to spread the neocon agenda to other agencies.

[thoreau]

I'd like to think that he won't be able to cause as much trouble once he doesn't have any armies at his command.

I hope he doesn't prove me wrong.

[gaius marius]

it also may be a hopeful signal, in conjunction with hints of a carrot policy, that brinksmanship with iran may be at an end. it's too early to call an end to the global democratic revolution, perhaps, but these appear to be good signs.

[Gary Gunnels]

What happened to Bono? 🙂

[gaius marius]

WH's attempt to spread the neocon agenda to other agencies.

perhaps, mr s -- but i think one can be "cautiously optimistic". given that condi and zoellick and hughes are in at state, there is reason to hope.

[Shem]

The bloody hell? Can anyone tell me what Wolfowitz has done that makes him qualified to ruin the World Bank.

[Shem]

Oops. That ruin was *supposed* to be run. Freudian slip.

[Gerry]

"Wolfowitz had pulled out of the running for the job earlier this month."

Wuh, wuh what!? ...and Condi sed she wouldn't run 😀

[saw-whet]

So Carly Fiorina is still unemployed? I'm looking for a housekeeper, two days a week...

[Brian]

She's probably enjoying her 21 MILLION DOLLARS she got for being incompetent and getting fired. I hope when I burn the fries at Arbys and get canned I get $21 million.

[Don Mynack]

I thought Libertarians should be against any kind of institutionalized banking structure like the World Bank, so who really cares who they appoint? Wait a minute, a chance to endlessly bash a neocon? Carry on.

[Charles Hueter]

It sorta goes without saying, Don.

[Tony D.]

What concerns me about Wolfowitz's appointment is that he doesn't understand the connection between global poverty and terrorism. I read about it here: http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=449

[Les]

Wait a minute, a chance to endlessly bash a neocon?

The fact that he's a neocon matters not at all. What matters is that he proved to be grossly incompetent at his last job and, as is the tradition in government, is therefore recommended for another high-ranking position.

[R C Dean]

Gaius, are you really hoping that the "democratic revolution" in the mideast comes a cropper, or do you just like to give that impression?

[gaius marius]

what wolfowitz seems to understand (maybe all he understands) is that democracy is an infallible holy panacea. to the extent that he'll try to use the world bank as a hammer for the installation of failing democracies throughout the third world, i don't know how much damage he can do. he'll have an entrenched bureaucracy to overcome.

i would agree that it's possible that the prussian neocon method ("i don't do carrots", as bolton once said) may well backfire on him and us by depriving failing states of help in an attempt to extort impossibly idealistic changes, thereby instilling in some segement of their populations the kind of undying hatred of the west that one sees in al-qaeda. but that's only a possibility.

[gaius marius]

are you really hoping that the "democratic revolution" in the mideast comes a cropper

hoping to be proved wrong, actually, mr dean, on a couple counts. i think it's stupidly foolish to think this kind of trotskyite revolution possible, much less beneficial -- and ghastly dangerous to try it considering its wildly utopian overtones. such idealism has made brilliant fodder for totalitarianism many times in the past.

i would *like* to be wrong on both counts. but i doubt i'm going to be. i expect a lot of failed democracies and their attendant tyrannies.

[Dogzilla]

This reads like an Onion headline. What next, Richard Perele to chair UNAIDS?

[Gary Gunnels]

gaius marius,

This is the standard reasoning of the hawks (and lot of other people). "If you think our plans are foolish, that must mean you hope we fail!" What it means of course is that I think your plans are foolish and I'll try to dissuade you from undertaking them. Heck, to analogize, I may tell someone they are a fool for trying to climb the Willis Wall on Mt. Ranier without a rope, ice screws, etc., but it doesn't mean that I desire them to fail.

[Gary Gunnels]

Anyway, Wolfowitz is hardly a shoe-in.

[gaius marius]

This is the standard reasoning of the hawks (and lot of other people). "If you think our plans are foolish, that must mean you hope we fail!"

indeed, mr gunnels, it's the jacobin way. once you've confirmed that your idea is holy, any dissent, however minor -- or even a lack of sufficient enthusiasm -- is evil.

[Gary Gunnels]

gauis marius,

Unyielding dogmatism is more like it.

[Shem]

Gary Gunnels;

What are the odds he won't be appointed? I was always under the impression that if a President nominated someone for the World Bank in such a high-profile, public way that he could more or less be considered a shoe-in for the job.

[Rick Barton]

The World Bank is an anti-free enterprise outfit that props up dictators. Hey, wasn't one of Wolfowitz's excuses for the Iraq war; that it would topple a dictatorship?

[Gary Gunnels]

Shem,

Yes, that's the general rule, but Wolfowitz is very unpopular. Anyway, like they say, rules are made to be broken.

[GUYK]

Heard that the third world is backing ole Wolfie! He has a plan to cut administrative costs by making direct deposits into the dictator's Swiss Bank Accounts instead of making them cash a check.

[Jon]

Wolfowitz's brief will be to channel World Bank funds into cleaning up the mess he made in Iraq.

[Kevin Carson]

According to John Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man), the World Bank's policies were already coordinated pretty closely with those of the Pentagon.

So maybe this is just cutting out the middleman.