Wolfowitz Owes Us An Explanation For His Role As "Chief Architect Of Iraq War"

[kpete]

Wolfowitz owes us an explanation
By Sonni Efron, Sonni Efron is an editor on the opinion pages of The Times.
December 24, 2006


ACCOUNTABILITY is one of those ideals, like justice or the triumph of right over might, that are wonderful in principle but usually disappointing in practice.

This is nowhere more true than in Washington, where one of the most powerful men in President Bush's inner circle, a man who helped conceive, plan and execute the Iraq war, has managed to escape scrutiny for steering his country into one of the greatest strategic catastrophes of his generation.

I am referring, although nobody else does, to Paul Wolfowitz. Remember Wolfowitz, best known to readers of this and other newspapers as the "chief architect of the Iraq war"? Before the war, he was hailed by many as one of the great foreign policy intellectuals of our time. He was a leading defense strategist, a former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and the former dean of the School of Advanced Studies at Johns Hopkins University, a man whose views on democracy and the Middle East were taken seriously by both his admirers and his critics. In 2001, Wolfowitz, then 58, was named deputy secretary of Defense, serving as top aide to Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

..........

I invited Wolfowitz to comment, telling us his views on Iraq or the problem of democracy in the radicalized Middle East. He declined, but e-mailed this response: "I'm not a U.S. official any more and unfortunately not a private citizen either. I work for 184 countries that expect me to do the job at the World Bank. I would like nothing better than to be able to get involved in this debate (over Iraq). I would particularly like to be able to clear the record of some of the garbage about myself personally, but if I start doing that, the people I work for would say, 'You are not doing your job, you are getting mixed up in something that is a distraction from the message that we would like you to deliver.' I have spoken to heads of 11 African countries, I have spoken to ordinary people, I have spoken to civil society groups; none of them care about my role in Iraq, they care about what I do in the World Bank."

Is that a reasonable answer? It's true that the bank's international board probably would prefer that Wolfowitz stick to saving Africa. But is that an excuse for him to keep silent while his country is agonizing over how Iraq went so wrong?


more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-efron24dec24,0,7771491.story?track=mostviewed-storylevel

[WiseButAngrySara]

1. He owes the U.S. an explanation for "doing his job" POORLY...

He is largely responsible for this current mess. Not a reasonable answer!

[Skidmore]

2. He owes the nation more than an explanation.

He owes us a very long term in a federal prison.

[Wiley50]

5. When It Comes To Neocons

I believe in Capital Punishment

[BOSSHOG]

7. Like the rest of those even remotely connected to PNAC

(limbaugh, free republic members, faux news, judith miller and the whole bush administration and others)

HANGED FROM THE NECK UNTIL DEAD.

[acmavm]

3. Paul Wolfowitz, traitor and liar. Like the rest of them.

I'd love to see him 'clear up' some of these base slanders against his sterling reputation all right.

edit: Since I read that he's practically destroyed the World Bank, I don't see why he can't run his mouth on his greatest and most public accomplishment, the murder of almost 3,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Since he's already fucked up his current job, it should be perfectly acceptable for the liar go explain how he was so fucking WRONG AND INCOMPETENT on the one before this. He works for 186 countries? Bullshit, he's still working for the neocons and the BFEE.

[still_one]

4. The one who owes people an explanation is bush

He is the one who made the ultimate decision, even though enough generals, intellitgence, and others in the know told him that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and were not a threat to us

Ultimate responsibility goes to the "decider", and HE should pay for the consequences of his actions, and if an investigation shows that illegal activities were done he should be impeached, and anyone involved in those illegal activites should be prosecuted

[acmavm]

6. The Decider didn't decide anything. He just did what he was told,

and delivered the lines he was given.

[still_one]

8. Bull. He knew exactly what he was doing, and though others may also be "guilty"

He is at the TOP OF THE LIST

To shift the blame to others is the way they protect this bastard. Look at his entire career, and what he has done. He knew exactly what he was doing.

That does NOT mean that others should not be punished, but this is the way they deflect blame from the ultimate "decider".

Look at what the talking points are about the Iraq war, it isn't this administrations fault, it is the Iraqiis because they don't want freedom

Don't believe the BS that the MSM throws out that bush is a complete idiot who is unaware of what is happening. He knows exactly what is happening

[acmavm]

12. Of course he's guilty. As guilty as the rest of 'em. But he was a

clown who, being so desperate to prove he wasn't a total failure, agreed to be front man for some of the most vile people to ever have been thrown out of American politics. They found their tool, the AWOL whiny amoral frat boy from a prominent family, and they put him out there as the presidential candidate that you could sit down and have a been with (even though he is a dry-drunk ex-coke head). And the American people bought it.

And that is the legacy of george dubya bush**. An incompetent, petulant, nasty, mean-spirited, corrupt individual willing to sell his soul to a bunch of bastards who would have fit in very well with the rest of the villains from the show 'Brimstone'. Remember that one? Where the evilest of the evil had escaped from Hell and the hero (so to speak) would get released from Hell if he could capture them and send them back?

Chimpy has the one thing most necessary from the point of view of Dick Cheney, Paul W., Richard Perle, Bill Kristol, and the rest of 'em. He has absolutely no scruple at what he will or won't do. Not as long as it benefits his ass. He is a true sociopath. But a dumb one and he blew the cover off the rest of that horrendous family as well.

[TomInTib]

13. You have it right

GWB never made a straightfoward decision in his life. Hell, he even asks permission to go pee.

He just reads the words that they write for him.

[Laughing Mirror]

9. Hiding pitifully behind the protective shield of many millions of poor Africans

as if being president of the World Bank is really doing them any good. What a laugh. He was just smarter than the rest of the White House mob, and got himself into a high-profile position where he has almost a sort of blanket quasi-diplomatic immunity. So nobody is coming after him now. But he can't stay president of that World Bank forever and he can only hide behind Africa for so long. Somebody will come after him in the end.

[pocoloco]

10. He's still on the job and as dangerous as ever!

Iraq is all about money and what better position to fleece a country of it's resources?

[dave_p]

11. Sick bastard

It really sickens me to think that this vicious, lying creep is now safe in a key international development post where the wellbeing of billions will be subject to the kind of contempt for human life that he and his neocon pals showed in urging this war.

It's not like anyone's calling for these bastards to hang, it's enough that they be made accountable and removed from positions where they can do similar damage. It's obscene that the world's poorest will be find their fate conditioned by Wolfowitz's twisted, chauvinistic "might is right" vision long after his cronies have left the White House.

He has charges to answer. If his position prevents him from facing those who have a right to hold him to account, let him leave it, now.

[Beetwasher]

16. Well Said!

And welcome!

[DeepModem Mom]

14. K&R

[Beetwasher]

15. Wolfowitz: "Huh? Whu? Who, me? I Had Nuthin' To Do W/ Iraq!"

"That's crazy talk! Now go away!"

[philly_bob]

17. Maybe World Bank needs a new head.

A criminal complaint against Wolfowitz (and lying to Congress is illegal) would make it especially difficult for him to do his job.

Someone should file a complaint (remember, the right-wingers filed a criminal complaint against Clinton for sexual harassment when he was in office) against him .

Then PW would have to respond. And the World Bank Board might encourage him to step down.

[illinoisprogressive]

18. He owes more than that

Like several years in gitmo along with the whole bush administration.

[rman]

19. Explanation? It's way beyond explanations

The neocon gang owes us jail time.

[Hubert Flottz]

20. He even spit shines his do...

Send him to Baghdad as a meter maid...He's the man with the "PLAN?"

Somebody who spits in his own hair, should not plan invasions, they should weave baskets!(underwater)

[symbolman]

21. Maybe a little

Subpoena will help to prod your memory, and induce some truth from those foul lips and mind?

Put this fucker on the HOT SEAT and don't let him off until there's nothing left but a little sincere gob of GOO.

I like to think of the PNAC'rs in the same vein as Spartacus, where once caught by the authorities they were Crucified all along the Appian way (I think that was the route), with each one having their eyes pecked out as they died of dehydration, as s warning to others.

Only THEY were Heroes of course.

Not that I would have the capability of making anything like that happen, so Mr Gonzales, file that one under a nice little fantasy.. or you can argue about the length of the spikes used to crucify someone in your pack, the 16 inch ones work quite nicely :)

[bobthedrummer]

22. So do Perle, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Feith, Luti, Shulsky, Rice, Bolton,

The Ledeens and a lot of others...