American Jewish Congress Lauds Wolfowitz Appointment to World Bank
By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem----April 2.....The American Jewish Congress today congratulated Paul Wolfowitz on his election as the president of the World Bank. “I know that under your leadership, the World Bank will build on its proud traditions in the fight against worldwide poverty and for sustainable development,” said AJCongress Chair Jack Rosen. “Your election comes at a critical time for the international community, with hopes for democratic change and peaceful resolution of long standing conflicts. The World Bank will play a significant role in all if these areas.”
Paul Wolfowitz has spent more than 30 years as a public servant and educator, including 24 years in government service under six Presidents. In March, 2001, he began his third tour at the Defense Department as the 28th Deputy Secretary of Defense. In the Pentagon’s number two post, Wolfowitz manages day-to-day operations and supports Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in his efforts to transform the U.S. Armed Forces to meet the threats of the 21st century.
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, Wolfowitz has assisted in planning the global war on terrorism, including military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has also played a diplomatic role in speeches before international audiences and in outreach to potential friends and allies, including moderate Muslims who aspire to freedom and self-determination.
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed Wolfowitz to his second Defense Department tour as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the Pentagon’s third-ranking post. He assisted Defense Secretary Cheney in developing plans for prosecuting the Gulf War and in raising more than $50 billion in allied financial support. Under President Reagan, Wolfowitz served three years as U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, the fourth most-populous country in the world and the largest in the Muslim world. During his tour, he was an advocate for political reform and negotiated on behalf of American intellectual property rights. Under his direction, U.S. Embassy Jakarta was recognized by the Inspector General as one of the best-managed U.S. diplomatic missions.
Before being posted to Indonesia, Wolfowitz served two years as head of the State Department’s Policy Planning Office and three-and-a-half years as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, working with the leaders of more than 20 countries. Wolfowitz assisted in a major improvement in U.S. relations with China and a strengthening of our alliances with Japan and Korea. He also played a key role in supporting the peaceful transition to democracy in the Philippines and laying the groundwork for the subsequent democratic transition in Korea. During his first Pentagon tour as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Regional Programs from 1977-1980, Wolfowitz led the first major assessment of U.S. strategic interests and challenges in the Persian Gulf, a study which helped to create what later became the United States Central Command. He also helped initiate the Maritime Pre-positioning Program, a plan that positioned heavy weapons and ammunition aboard ships in the Persian Gulf region. That preparation was the backbone of the initial U.S. response 12 years later during Operation Desert Shield.
Wolfowitz’s time outside government has been spent principally as a leader in higher education. From 1994-2001, he served as Dean and Professor of International Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of The Johns Hopkins University. During his tenure, Wolfowitz also contributed to the public debate on national security issues through his writings, testimony before Congress, and service on public commissions—among them the 1998 Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States and the 1996 President’s Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Earlier, Wolfowitz taught political science at Yale University from 1970 to 1973. In 1993, he was the George F. Kennan Professor of National Security Strategy at the National War College. Wolfowitz has written widely on national security strategy and foreign policy. He was a member of the advisory boards of the journals Foreign Affairs and National Interest. Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Cornell University in 1965 and a doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago in 1972.
In Israel, The Jerusalem Post had selected Paul Wolfowitz as its Man of the Year for 2002. The Post stated: "On September 15, 2001, at a meeting in Camp David, Wolfowitz 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?"
The Post added: "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. This is more remarkable than you might at first think. Following September 11, many people grasped intuitively that it was useless to contain or deter foes for whom suicide was an acceptable option. The difference with Wolfowitz is that he's been talking about this since at least 1992. The difference with Wolfowitz, too, is that his hawkish leanings on defense (the Economist once called him the administration's "velociraptor") combine with a remarkable optimism about the prospects for Mideast democracy."
"When President Bush says, "America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons" -- that's Wolfowitz talking. When the president calls for "a new Arab charter that champions internal reform, greater political participation, economic openness and free trade" -- that's Wolfowitz's talking, too. But perhaps the greatest measure of Wolfowitz's influence is that Colin Powell now waxes rhapsodic about an Iraq "on the road to democratic self-government." This from the man who, after the first Gulf War, mocked: "Where's Iraq's Thomas Jefferson?" To our ears, the sudden stress on Mideast democratization is "transformative," to use the Pentagon jargon. Israel has long waited for an administration that understands that the principal problem in the Middle East is not the unsettled status of our borders. It is the unsettling nature of Arab regimes -- and of the bellicosity, fanaticism, and resentments to which they give rise. Israel has also long waited for an administration that understands that the regimes that threaten Tel Aviv also threaten New York.
The Jerusalem Post concluded: "There's a downside. Earlier in the year, the notion took hold that the president was taking the country to war at the urgings of his Jewish advisers, themselves shills for Israel. "Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Bill Kristol [are]... the clique of conservatives who are driving this war," wrote New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. She may as well have written "the clique of Jews," some felt. Other critics of the war were more explicit. "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war in Iraq," said Democratic Congressman Jim Moran, "we would not be doing this." In this year when anti-Semitism is once again a fact of life, the name "Wolfowitz" has become its lightning rod."
The American Jewish Congress is a membership association of Jewish Americans, organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad, through public policy advocacy, in the courts, Congress, the executive branch and state and local governments. It also works overseas with others who are similarly engaged.