Wolfowitz and the 'American' Way of Thinking

[unhappycamper]

Wolfowitz and the 'American' Way of Thinking
O Globo, Brazil
By William Waack
Translated By Brandi Muiller
May 18, 2007

Perhaps if Paul Wolfowitz himself had entered the World Bank with tanks and the 82nd Airborne, he would have managed to promote his girlfriend more quickly, but the results would have been the same as those he achieved in Baghdad : confusion, deep divisions between allies and former allies, and a complete absence of foresight. Wolfowitz the man and his personal politics and passions were treated here in the last column. Of interest to us here is an examination what the resignation of the World Bank president signifies for North American foreign policy.

(Editor’s Note: Most people in Latin American do not refer to the United States as "America," since in their minds, "America" includes them. Typically, they would refer to us as The United States or North America, which oddly-enough does not include Canada. The headline of this article notwithstanding).

It is not cynical to declare that we are privileged observe - in such a small amount if time - the destruction of a completely mistaken posture for resolving international problems – the posture of the Bush government. If we wanted to provide a 3 x 4 portrait of the arrogance of one who is absolutely convinced that he embodies a mission, and who believes with certainty in his own vision of world (which makes anyone who disagrees with him an automatic adversary or incompetent), I would suggest the face of Wolfowitz, his hair sticky with this own saliva (remember the scene with him licking his comb before passing it through his hair? WATCH ).

Just days after Wolfowitz assumed the presidency in 2005, the World Bank bureaucracy began to feel like they were being led by Bush’s people in the Pentagon and State Department. Wolfowitz trusted in the opinions of only a small circle of confidants, he despised any dissent and declared the bad intentions or corruption of any adversary. On certain matters, he had definite and categorical positions, which he tried to push down the throats of an administrative power structure that he considered inept and lazy.

These are exactly the words that Wolfowitz & Company used to describe the internal procedures in the Pentagon, the Department of State and even the CIA, where they had some of their worst conflicts. Wolfowitz and his group of neoconservatives ignored advice, opinions, and even reasonably secure information that didn’t fit with his "certain" vision of the world, which basically consists of believing that American values (as he defines them) can be implanted anywhere in the world in a very short span of time.

~SNIP~

Maybe this personal defeat – which is above all a political defeat – of people like Wolfowitz, will initiate a different kind of intellectual research on the international stage, in which Republican "think tanks" will prove competent and imaginative. This cannot be said today. Yet there was sound basis for the critiques of the American "liberal conscience" from Wolfowitz and his friends. The receding tide of neoconservatism is just a small part of a cultural revolution that continues to unfold.

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