Paul Wolfowitz

[[File:Paul_Wolfowitz.jpg|thumb|165px|le|(War-)Hungry like the Wolfowitz (with apologies to Duran Duran)]]{{uspolitics}}
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{{cquote|Fuck you<ref>''Lies (and the Lying Liars That Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right-Wing'' by Al Franken (2003) Dutton. ISBN 0525947647.</ref>{{rp|221}}}}
'''Paul Wolfowitz''' {{lived|1943}} is the man commonly considered the "architect" of the [[United States]]' 2003-2011 [[Iraq War|war in Iraq]].<ref>[https://www.mediamatters.org/nbc/meet-iraq-war-architect-paul-wolfowitz-uses-opportunity-nbc-re-litigate-iraq-invasion Meet The Iraq War Architect: Paul Wolfowitz Uses Opportunity On NBC To Re-litigate Iraq Invasion]</ref>  He has also worked at the World Bank, but resigned under pressure due to a scandal.  He gave his girlfriend an enormous pay raise while promoting an [[irony|anti-corruption]] drive at the bank.

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.<ref>[https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/NEWS-ANALYSIS-Bush-team-sought-to-snuff-CIA-2600065.php NEWS ANALYSIS / Bush team sought to snuff CIA doubts / Differences over Iraq WMD latest attempt to override agency]</ref> 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 (Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicle) 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 [[George W. Bush|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 (along 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 [[Project for a New American Century|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 [[sociopath]]ic 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]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070208110330/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article430690.ece Crying Wolfowitz-Comment-Leading Article-TimesOnline (Wayback Machine copy due to the original article having been paywalled)]</ref>

However, other sources state that he used to be a Democrat and became a [[Republican]] in 1981.<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A43339-2003Apr6&notFound=true ] (link offline)</ref> It's quite a bit safer to go with him being an ex-Democrat who became a Republican.

On January 28, 2007, Paul Wolfowitz visited a mosque during an official visit to Turkey. Obeying local customs, he removed his shoes and revealed two large holes in his socks! Apparently, he is either a great comedian or an outstanding cheap if at a salary of $ 391,440 in the year the chief banker of the world can't afford to buy extra pair of socks. Due to this incident, the international fundraising [http://www.socksforpaulwolfowitz.com "1,000,000 socks for Paul Wolfowitz"]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160803135329/http://www.socksforpaulwolfowitz.com/ "1,000,000 socks for Paul Wolfowitz"]</ref> was established to buy 1,000,000 socks to replace Wolfowitz's holey socks with new ones.

==Paul and Iraq==
As mentioned above, many consider Paul Wolfowitz to be the "architect" of Bush's invasion of Iraq, although Wolfowitz denies he fits such a description.<ref>[https://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/paul-wolfowitz-not-iraq-war-architect-107941 Wolfowitz: Not Iraq War ‘architect’]</ref> Wolfowitz had been calling for the removal of Saddam Hussein since 1978,<ref>''A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq'' by Christopher Hitchens. Plume/Penguin Group, ISBN 0452284988</ref>{{rp|2}} even criticizing him when [[Ronald Reagan]] was supporting Hussein during the Iraq-Iran War.<ref>James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans: the history of Bush's war cabinet (2004)</ref>{{rp|93}} During this time, Wolfowitz did everything possible to tie any act of terrorism even loosely associated with people in the Middle East to Iraq, regardless of how strong the connection actually was.<ref>[https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/jeb-bush-adviser-paul-wolfowitz/ The Jeb Bush Adviser Who Should Scare You]</ref>

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20020911215109/http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/shockwave/chickenhawks.htm Flight of the Chickenhawks]

==References==
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{{stub|United States politics}}
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[[Category:Bush administration]]
[[Category:Chickenhawks]]
[[Category:Jews]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Neoconservatives]]
[[Category:United States politicians]]

Categories: Bush administration, Chickenhawks, Jews, Living people, Neoconservatives, United States politicians