So, Paul Wolfowitz is finally gone as President of the World Bank. The Washington Post has the best quote I've seen on this, from a "former colleague who served with Wolfowitz in four administrations," that Wolfowitz was a smart guy but "couldn't run a two-car funeral." How about a one-car funeral? Or, more to the point, how about the conceptualization, planning, selling and execution of the botched, disastrous war in Iraq? The fact is that Wolfowitz was as responsible as anyone for the mess we're in now with regards to Iraq, and that's pretty much unforgiveable.
As responsible as Wolfowitz was for Iraq, however, he didn't act in a vacuum - that FUBAR fiasco was a team effort (go team, yay!!!) of the entire Bush White House and the Republican Congress from 2001 through 2006. So, while I'm happy to see Wolfowitz gone from the World Bank (and Rumsfeld gone from the Pentagon), what I really care about is seeing us gone from Iraq in a way that doesn't do even MORE damage to Iraq and to U.S. interests in the Middle East. Unfortunately, with Bush and Cheney in charge, I have absolutely no confidence that we're going to ever see that particular "mission accomplished."
Former staff association chairman Morallina Fanwar George, had suggested in an e-mail that they wear ribbons to show their concern for the bank's future. The first day, April 18, 1,000 ribbons were snapped up in an afternoon.
"Things really started moving the following day. On her way to work, George stopped by a florist, asking him if he had more matching blue ribbon. After he said yes, he sent out his workers to a warehouse, nearly cleaning out the supply. In the conference room of the staff association, people cut and assembled in 15-minute shifts. The rank and file came on coffee breaks, lunch breaks, any free time they had. Soon after, volunteers (including retired World Bank employees) were handing out ribbons in the common areas. A fashion trend was born."