Trigger Man

[rodeodance]

Before anyone bashes me for posting from a right wing I want to say that this is a good read--a 'what makes wolfie tick' story.
And some good history.
Thanks in advance.


http://www.amconmag.com/2005_06_06/article1.html

> June 6, 2005 Issue
> Copyright © 2005 The American Conservative
>
> Trigger Man
>
> In Paul Wolfowitz, messianic vision meets faith in the efficacy of force.
>
> by Andrew J. Bacevich
>
> “Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces.” So observed Henry Adams nearly a century ago. Yet the men engaged in that struggle fascinate us: through them otherwise latent forces that actually shape politics are made manifest.
>
> In recent years, Paul Wolfowitz has been the object of such fascination, extravagantly admired in some quarters for his strategic acumen, reviled in others as a reckless warmonger. It is easy to see why: more than any of the other dramatis personae in contemporary Washington, Wolfowitz embodies the central convictions to which the United States in the age of Bush subscribes—in particular, an extraordinary certainty in the righteousness of American actions married to extraordinary confidence in the efficacy of American arms.


......


In its trial run, the doctrine of preventive war—Wolfowitz’s handiwork as much as the president’s—has produced liberation and occupation, a crisp demonstration of “shock and awe” and a protracted, debilitating insurgency, the dramatic toppling of a dictator and horrifying evidence implicating American soldiers in torture and other abuses. The Iraq War has now entered its third year with no end in sight, taxing U.S. forces to the limit. The ongoing conflict has divided the nation like no event since Vietnam. Like Vietnam, it is sapping our economic strength and has already done immeasurable damage to our standing in the world. Despite expectations of Saddam’s overthrow paving the way for what some expected to be a foreign policy of moral incandescence, the United States finds itself obliged once again to compromise its ideals, cozying up to little Saddams like Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf and Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov.

The forces that Paul Wolfowitz helped unleash—a dangerous combination of hubris and naïveté—are exacting an ever mounting cost. His considerable exertions notwithstanding, truth in matters of statecraft remains implacably gray. Even assuming honorable intentions on the part of those who conceived this war, wielding power in Iraq has left the United States up to its ankles, if not up to its knees, in guilt.

[DemBeans]

1. good read

Traditional conservatives have no use for the neocons, who have usurped their power in Washington. It's a more interesting split, really, than their rift with the religious right.

[rodeodance]

7. lets hope the Right factions become for factionous!!!!!

[48pan]

2. The World Bank is a good place for him...

We won't be hearing much from him anymore.

[On the Road]

4. *We* Won't be Hearing from Him

but all those African nations will be hearing from his economic hit men. He may be committed to poor nations, but his version of improvement is neoliberalizing the rest of the world.

[rodeodance]

6. and using other countries for his/WH purposes.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. Unfortunately, he will continue to carry out the PNAC plan of....

...global domination by economic, political, and military means. He now heads one branch of that three-headed NeoCon monster.

[nashville_brook]

3. the thing about the "doctrine" of Preventative War...

is it's NOT a doctrine. it's just a lame way of saying "we're coming after you."

it really worries me that so few people have called them on this. Preventative War?

you PREVENT things that are bad. you engage in PREVENTION to avoid death and loss and grief.

Preventative War is the mother of all oxymorons.