October 4, 2003
THE NEXT PROTOCOL:
Man of the Year (Bret Stephens, Jerusalem Post)
NO question: This was Paul Wolfowitz's year. On September 15, 2001, at a meeting in Camp David, he advised President George W. Bush to skip Kabul and train American guns on Baghdad. In March 2003, he got his wish. In the process, Wolfowitz became the most influential US deputy defense secretary ever - can you so much as name anyone else who held the post? And he's on the shortlist to succeed Colin Powell as secretary of state.Not that this alone qualifies Wolfowitz as the Jerusalem Post's Man of the Year. The war in Iraq had many authors: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Tony Blair, George Bush. Wolfowitz may have been an early and vocal advocate, but he was cheering from the second row.
What's not in dispute is that Wolfowitz is the principal author of the doctrine of preemption, which framed the war in Iraq and which, when it comes to it, will underpin US action against other rogue states.
Well, that'll help quiet those "Likudnik/Neocons are running America" stories, eh? Posted by Orrin Judd at October 4, 2003 2:57 PM
Conspiracy theory: the Jerusalem Post is an adjunct member of the McAuliffe wing of the Democratic Party.
Posted by: old maltese at October 4, 2003 3:36 PMPaul Wolfowitz for Secy. of State? Richard Armitage would have to chain himself to his desk (as would probably 200 or so other striped pants types). Maybe he would name Joel Mowbray as Assist. Secy. for Consular Affairs!
Posted by: jim hamlen at October 4, 2003 5:10 PMThe paleocon view that old-time conservatives would not have gone after these marauding mohammedans with genocidal vigor is pure fiction.