Paul Wolfowitz
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'''Paul Wolfowitz''' was a principal architect of the [[United States]]' 2003-2011 [[Iraq war|war in Iraq]]. He has also worked at the World Bank, but resigned under pressure due to a scandal. He gave his girlfriend an enormous pay rise while promoting an [[irony|anti-corruption]] drive at the bank. | '''Paul Wolfowitz''' was a principal architect of the [[United States]]' 2003-2011 [[Iraq war|war in Iraq]]. He has also worked at the World Bank, but resigned under pressure due to a scandal. He gave his girlfriend an enormous pay rise while promoting an [[irony|anti-corruption]] drive at the bank. | ||
| − | During the [[Cold War|1970's]] Wolfowitz was part of the [[CIA]]'s | + | During the [[Cold War|1970's]] Wolfowitz was part of the [[CIA]]'s Team B which argued that the National Intelligence Estimate underestimated [[Soviet]] military power and misinterpreted Soviet strategic intentions. Team B was approved by Director of Central Intelligence, [[George H. W. Bush]], and given access to highly classified data. They started from the assumption that the USSR had to have superior weapons and jumped to ludicrous conclusions when the [[evidence]] did not agree. They claimed that radar dishes were in fact [[Star Wars|laser weapons[[ or that Soviet submarines had non-acoustic sonar and were hence undetectable by [[NATO]] technology. |
About the only thing they got even remotely correct was that the Soviets did not subscribe to the idea of [[mutually assured destruction]] - they thought they could win an all-out [[nuclear war]]. The CIA had previously assumed that the USSR was stockpiling nuclear weapons as a [[deterrence|deterrent]], just like the U.S. The USSR was in fact designing MIRV'd missiles intended to take out hardened missile silos and cripple any U.S. counter-attack. Of course, these also would have been useful in the case of an imminent first strike, or even as a second-strike capability. (Which is why the US developed MIRV technology to begin with.) | About the only thing they got even remotely correct was that the Soviets did not subscribe to the idea of [[mutually assured destruction]] - they thought they could win an all-out [[nuclear war]]. The CIA had previously assumed that the USSR was stockpiling nuclear weapons as a [[deterrence|deterrent]], just like the U.S. The USSR was in fact designing MIRV'd missiles intended to take out hardened missile silos and cripple any U.S. counter-attack. Of course, these also would have been useful in the case of an imminent first strike, or even as a second-strike capability. (Which is why the US developed MIRV technology to begin with.) | ||
Revision as of 05:40, 24 March 2014
Paul Wolfowitz was a principal architect of the United States' 2003-2011 war in Iraq. He has also worked at the World Bank, but resigned under pressure due to a scandal. He gave his girlfriend an enormous pay rise while promoting an anti-corruption drive at the bank.
During the 1970's Wolfowitz was part of the CIA's Team B which argued that the National Intelligence Estimate underestimated Soviet military power and misinterpreted Soviet strategic intentions. Team B was approved by Director of Central Intelligence, George H. W. Bush, and given access to highly classified data. They started from the assumption that the USSR had to have superior weapons and jumped to ludicrous conclusions when the evidence did not agree. They claimed that radar dishes were in fact [[Star Wars|laser weapons[[ or that Soviet submarines had non-acoustic sonar and were hence undetectable by NATO technology.
About the only thing they got even remotely correct was that the Soviets did not subscribe to the idea of mutually assured destruction - they thought they could win an all-out nuclear war. The CIA had previously assumed that the USSR was stockpiling nuclear weapons as a deterrent, just like the U.S. The USSR was in fact designing MIRV'd missiles intended to take out hardened missile silos and cripple any U.S. counter-attack. Of course, these also would have been useful in the case of an imminent first strike, or even as a second-strike capability. (Which is why the US developed MIRV technology to begin with.)
One thing of note about him is that he was the man who brought much of the Bush administration together (before they became the Bush administration, mind), from Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld to Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. He and Rumsfeld were the two men responsible for concocting a reason to kill Saddam Hussein and take his oil in the middle of a conflict with Osama bin Laden. Furthermore, he was one of the co-authors (long with Scooter Libby) of the Wolfowitz Doctrine, which outlined a strategy that would expand American imperialism throughout the global stage. Many of these methods would later be adopted into the Bush Doctrine, making him the ultimate architect of foreign affairs under Bush. As one of several Bush officials who agreed with the PNAC's call for a "New Pearl Harbor" meant to take advantage of a crisis to expand American influence, it's both quite characteristic and incredibly sociopathic for Wolfowitz to say "There didn't seem to be much to do about it immediately and we went on with whatever the meeting was" over the 9/11 attacks.
Despite being an ardent supporter and architect of the Bush-McCain doctrine, Wolfowitz is a registered Democrat.[1] The fuck?
However, other sources state that he used to be a Democrat and became a Republican in 1981.[2] It's quite a bit safer to go with him being an ex-Democrat who became a Republican.