calling Wolfie (II)

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Wanted: Dirty Rotten Scoundrel
By John Cavanagh, Foreign Policy in Focus

Posted on March 5, 2005, Printed on March 5, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/21415/ 

Ten reasons why Paul Wolfowitz would be perfect for the job of World
Bank president.

1. He would follow in the great tradition of World Bank president Robert
McNamara, who also helped kill tens of thousands of people in a poor
country most Americans couldn't find on a map before getting the job.

2. It helps to be a good liar when you run an institution with employees
who earn over $100,000 a year to pretend to help billions of people who
live on less than $1 a day.

3. With all his experience helping U.S. companies grab Iraq 's oil
profits, he's got just the right experience for doling out lucrative
World Bank contracts to U.S. businesses.

4. After predecessor James Wolfensohn blew millions of dollars on
"consultations" with citizen groups to give the appearance of openness,
Wolfowitz's tough-guy style is just what's needed to rid the World Bank
of those irritating activists.

5. Unlike former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, another one of the
four leading candidates, at least Wolfowitz hasn't failed at running a
Fortune 500 company.

6. Unlike the Treasury Department's John Taylor, another leading
candidate, at least Wolfowitz doesn't want to get rid of the institution
he would head.

7. While earning a University of Chicago Ph.D., he was exposed to the
tenets of market fundamentalism that have reigned at the World Bank for
decades.

8. He has experience in constructing echo chambers where only the advice
he wants to hear is spoken.

9. He knows some efficient private contractors who build echo chambers
for only a few hundred billion dollars (cost plus, of course).

10. He can develop a pre-emptive poverty doctrine where the World Bank
could invade countries that fail to make themselves safe for U.S.
business, modeled on the U.S. pre-emptive war doctrine he helped craft.

[he forgot #11: the WB needs someone who's introduced a new way to comb
one's hair.]

(c) 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/21415/ 

Jim Devine, e-mail: jdevine@xxxxxxx
web: http://myweb.lmu.edu/jdevine/