Just a Gwai Lo fun within prescribed limits [?]

Timothy Noah presents a theory as to why Paul Wolfowitz was wrong about Iraq this time around: “Wolfowitz was corrupted by early success. Twenty-odd years ago, Wolfowitz took two very lonely positions that proved to be spectacularly right. As a consequence, he developed an unshakable belief that once he's thought through a problem [...] he should ignore the cavils of lesser minds. Time will prove that he's right.”

Timothy Noah seems awfully confident that Wolfowitz was wrong that “post-Saddam Iraq would quickly get back on its feet”. The key word for me is "quickly": I'd be interested to see how Noah and Wolfowitz differ on the definition, it only being a year since Saddam was ousted.

Paul Wolfowitz as misquoted by PRC News: "I think all foreigners should stop interfering in [our] internal affairs". The actual quote, from the article that PRC News linked to, is "I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq". Substituting "[our]" for "the" and taking out "of Iraq" changes the meaning significantly.

Even so, it's a stupid thing said by a really smart guy. I mean, it's pretty hypocritical for someone interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq (by invading it) to tell others to stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq.

(And this for the record: I'm actually a political supporter of Wolfowitz. He was right about Saddam Hussein long before it was cool to be right about Saddam Hussein.)

The Boys Who Cried Wolfowitz By Bill Keller. Too much is quote-worthy, but it deals with why Keller supported the war, and hypothetical "Team B" intelligence teams and Wolfowitz' actual "Team B".

Two excellent reads on Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who long held what was until very recently the minority opinion within the United States government that Saddam Hussein needed to be forcibly removed: Christopher Hitchens on Bob Woodword's so-called journalism and Josh Marshall's analysis of the controversy surrounding Wolfowitz' recent remarks (start at the paragraph that begins “In any case, the latest brouhaha”...).