Bush crowns Wolfowitz: the iron fist becomes the hidden hand. posted by Richard Seymour

As Wolfowitz is made President of the World Bank by President Bush, Tim Shorrock has the goods on Wolfowitz's sordid past . He cites Associated Press :

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 Philippinetransition to democracy. He also serves as U.S. ambassador to Indonesia.

Well, guess what his diplomacy in Indonesia amounted to? Read on...

This is not new. Robert McNamara was President of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981. In order to get that job, he quit his old one as US Secretary for Defense, a post he had held under both Kennedy and Johnson from 1961 to 1968, supervising the destruction of Vietnam. It is widely reputed that McNamara has somehow resiled from his actions, but all he has done to date is indicate that he felt the war could not succeed, was misguided even though it was conducted according to "the principles and traditions of this nation". He had personally ordered the massive escalation of bombing of defenseless civilians in South Vietnam 1965, not to mention the more widely discussed escalation against the North.

Denis Healey reports a revealing meeting with McNamara:

We used to have breakfast together in Brussels before every meeting of NATO defence ministers. I once asked him how things were going in Vietnam. "Just fine," he replied. "Next month we'll be dropping twice the tonnage of bombs we are dropping this month."

Anyway, we at least have to thank President Bush for choosing his main neoconservative sidekick for the role, since it illustrates at a stroke the connection between neoliberal economic policy and neoconservative foreign policy. And, as some wiseacres have pointed out, at least it removes him from the Department of Defense.