President Bush has nominated Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank. World, blog, and tin-foil hat reaction below.

AP in The Guardian:

President Bush on Wednesday tapped Defense Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who has been a lightning rod for criticism of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and other defense policies, to take over as head of the World Bank....

He was regarded as more academic and ideological than his boss, Rumsfeld. Wolfowitz was among the most forceful of those in the Bush administration in arguing that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and he had predicted that Americans would be welcomed as liberators rather than occupiers once they toppled Saddam's government....

Wolfowitz, a veteran of six administrations, has earned a reputation for being a foreign policy hawk - the view that the United States should use its superpower status to push for reforms in other nations. A conservative scholar, Wolfowitz, before taking over the Defense Department post, had served as dean and professor of international relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University.

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 Philippine transition to democracy. He also served as U.S. ambassador to Indonesia.

George W Bush, the American president has nominated defense deputy secretary Paul Wolfowitz to take over as head of the World Bank.

Mr Bush described Mr Wolfowitz as "a compassionate, decent man who will do a fine job at the World Bank. That's why I put him up."

James Wolfensohn, the current president of the 184-nation development bank, is due to resign on June 1, at the end of his second five-year term

Several international groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and ActionAid called Wolfowitz a bad choice. Greenpeace expressed concern that Wolfowitz would "put U.S. and oil industry interests" ahead of development.

Prediction from Muslim Press, DU, and Zeropeans: Zionist Jew to Head up World Bank: More Evidence Jews Run Worldwide Banking System.

Any takers on that bet?

Oh wait, I didn't even finish the post yet when....

Turkish Press (which doesn't cite the original source as AFP, a French news service):

US President George W. Bush risked inflaming global opinion Wednesday by putting forward his deeply controversial deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, to become World Bank chief.

In a move that could undermine the new thaw in transatlantic relations, Bush said he wanted Donald Rumsfeld's number two at the Pentagon to take over in a role that is central to global development.

He is also held in deep suspicion as a central figure in the neoconservative movement, which wants the United States to impose its vision of liberal democracy and free-market economics on the world....

But the choice of Wolfowitz could test the transatlantic consensus on the top appointments at the World Bank and IMF as never before, after Bush last month visited Brussels to consolidate a post-Iraq thaw in US-Europe relations....

But Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation said that the Wolfowitz pick was a worrying pointer for Bush's foreign-policy intentions coming after the choice of another arch-hawk, John Bolton, to be United Nations ambassador.

"The message is that neoconservatism maintains a tenacious, tight grip on US foreign policy and that the world's most important multilateral institutions need to be disciplined to be responsive to a more narrow American parochialism in global affairs," he commented.AFP (France) in a Mauritanian publication:

Wolfowitz, 61, incurred the wrath of many European countries as a prime mover behind the war in Iraq.

He is also held in deep suspicion as a central figure in the "neoconservative" movement, which wants the United States to impose its vision of liberal democracy and free-market economics on the world.

Deputy US Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of the main advocates for the Iraq war, is President George Bush's choice for World Bank president, according to administration officials...

Wolfowitz is a deeply controversial figure in Europe because of his role in designing and promoting the Iraq war....

He has also been a frequent target of criticism from congressional Democrats for what they called his "rosy" assessments of the Iraq war. Before the invasion, he assured Congress: "We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon."

The selection follows Bush's controversial decision to nominate John Bolton, another leading administration hawk, to be US ambassador to the United Nations.

US hawk named to run World Bank

Mr Wolfowitz is a deeply controversial figure in US politics, the BBC's Justin Webb reports from Washington.

He is associated with the so-called "neo-conservatives" - senior figures in and around the Bush administration who believe that America needs to be very active in pressing the case for its values around the world, our correspondent says.

Democratic Underground Reacts: (hat tip: Charles Johnson)

8. but when I told people the neocons want to take over 4 yrs ago... they made tinfoil hat comments and called me a conspiracy theorist....they also denied that neocons even existed. I'm very, very sorry to have been right.

22. We are right there with you.It hurts just a little/maybe a lot to have to sit here and watch this all happen. We're sorry too.

Have you wallpapered yet in tin foil, it helps a little, (we've become able to come to terms with being "conspiracy" theorists), maybe now all we need is a group support organization like AA?

50. The last 4 years conspiracy theories have been better guides to predicting the future than coincidence theories. Sadly...

And the money shot:

15. Link here Related: If you are interested in the Federal reserve and you want to know who owns this planet...
http://tvnewslies.org/cart/view_product.php?product=MON... FYI.

Link leads to this:

THE MONEY MASTERS DVD is a 3 1/2 hour non-fiction, historical documentary that traces the origins of the political power structure that rules our nation and the world today. The modern political power structure has its roots in the hidden manipulation and accumulation of gold and other forms of money.

OTB has some pretty good analysis of Wolfowitz's nomination in light of other nominations.

UPDATE:

Kos is predictable:

So you help drag the nation into a bloody war with no exit strategy, cost the country $200 billion and counting, 1,500 American deaths and counting, tens of thousands of physical and mental injuries, and counting, and untold numbers of Iraqi dead.

All on false pretenses, with no real understanding of how our troops would be received.

How are you punished?

Another "fuck you" from Bush to the world community. Mind boggling.

Drum, always more subdued, but equally nutty as armchair psychologist:

I never understood the wish fulfillment fantasies of people who thought Bush might change in his second term — he's obviously a guy with only one gear and a profound need to crush his enemies — but I wonder if anyone still believes this? If so, it's time to face the music. It's going to be a long four years.

Yglesias pretty well sums up what I assume to be the moderate Democratic response:

I'm going to stake out a radically moderate view on this and say that I'd like to actually know something about Wolfowitz's views on what the World Bank does before offering judgment. Preventative wars are not, I take it, something the Bank head is able to launch.

UPDATE: Check out the more hard core Bush hating left.

Meat Eating Leftist:

This is a perftect fit for Wolfowitz. He wants to do all of the above but only posthumously after a U.S. invasion of these poor nations. Good. Great...

This guy is another shining example of the chimp appointing people to leadership positions whose agenda and interests run counter to the organization or position they hold.

But it gets even funnier. CN Todd must have been up late reading his Chomsky:

But certainly since the 80s, the World Bank along with the IMF have become absolutely essential arms of U.S. imperialism: a means for imposing drastic economic conditions on developing countries in exchange for loans that have lead to further crisis, economic downturn, increased poverty and unemployment, and the further accumulation of wealth among the transnational capitalist class.....

That Mr. Wolfowitz is comfortable in the roll of imperialist crusader should already have been evident

Other Blog Reaction: Digger, Galvin Opinion, Taegen Goddard, CommonSense Desk, Jeff Jarvis, Tom Carter, Boston Dreamer, Waveflux, Instapundit, David Corn

Posted by: Rusty at 12:19 PM | Comments (36) | Add Comment
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