Paul Wolfowitz

As you may have already read, Miley Cyrus is totally embarrassed by the semi-topless (back view) photos printed of her in this month's Vanity Fair. In a statement put out by her publicist, Ms. Cyrus, age 15, said, "I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed... I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about."

Representatives of the magazine responded that during Annie Liebovitz's shoot, "Miley's parents and/or minders were on the set all day... Since the photo was taken digitally, they saw it on the shoot and everyone thought it was a beautiful and natural portrait of Miley."

This isn't the first time a star has felt stung by VF. Dewey ingenues like Lindsay Lohan and Paul Wolfowitz have complained of being misquoted and beloved icons like Courtney Love and Paris Hilton blame the magazine for their subsequent vilification. Here, a look back in anger, denial, and occasional admission.  read more »

While international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the United Nations may still seem remote to most Americans, those institutions symbolize the increasing integration of a planet that deeply needs capable, trusted and farsighted guidance.  read more »

The LA Times honorably tries to get Paul Wolfowitz, former deputy DefSec, to cop to his grievous errors about Iraq. In an email, Wolfowitz offers the Times his usual garbage-excuse on why he can't talk about it:

I would like nothing better than to be able to get involved in this debate [over Iraq]. I would particularly like to be able to clear the record of some of the garbage about myself personally, but if I start doing that, the people I work for would say, 'You are not doing your job,

The guy's whistling in the wind, hoping against hope that the World Bank will somehow eclipse Iraq in the world's memory of him. It won't. We can chisel the epitaph now: "the Iraqis will welcome us as liberators". Wolfowitz should take a cue from McNamara, and start apologizing now, not thirty years on.

And the LATimes should extend its expiation services to all the other leaders who helped drag us into this disastrous war. How 'bout some journalists?

A few weeks before the invasion of Iraq, Melissa Block of National Public Radio interviewed Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz about what war would mean for Iraq. It's a good interview, worth reviewing. Wolfowitz is of course now at the World Bank. Here's a taster's selection of quotes:

Block: At the United Nations yesterday there were envoys from Muslim countries warning of massive political instability in the region, of huge numbers of deaths and injuries as well as refugees.

Wolfie: Clearly some of the fears come from I think probably exaggerated notions of what may happen... But at the end of the day I think many of these governments understand that...that it will be an act of humanity [to] the Iraqi people, that it will be an act that will bring more stability to the region, not less.

Block: There are concerns, too, though about the rise of Muslim extremism in the region inflamed by the U.S. occupation of Iraq...

Wolfie: We're not talking about the occupation of Iraq. We're talking about the liberation of Iraq. We're talking about the liberation of one of the most talented populations in the Arab world and perhaps the most long-suffering population in the Arab world. Therefore, when that regime is removed we will find one of the most talented populations in the Arab world, perhaps complaining that it took us so long to get there... basically welcoming us as liberators.... The Arab world is going to see that and it's going to have a very big impact not just in Iraq but throughout the Arab world.

Block: The presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia has been one of the most inflammatory things for al Qaeda and groups like that. That they see U.S. occupation or U.S. presence in that country as something that they must fight against. How would it be any different in Iraq?

Wolfie: The Iraqis are among the most educated people in the Arab world. They are by and large quite secular. They are overwhelmingly Shia which is different from the Wahabis of the [Saudi] peninsula... But the most fundamental difference is that, let me put it this way. We're seeing today how much the people of Poland and Central and Eastern Europe appreciate what the United States did to help liberate them from the tyranny of the Soviet Union. I think you're going to see even more of that sentiment in Iraq. There's not going to be the hostility that you described...There simply won't be.

PBS's "Frontline" aired a documentary last night called The Dark Side about the manipulation of intelligence by the vice president's office in the runup to the Iraq war. This is now an old story, but it was well-told. Frontline assembled a number of former intelligence analysts to show how the CIA's usual standards of accuracy were overrun in order to produce the result Cheney wanted.

Aluminum tubes... Yellow cake from Niger....Chemical labs in train cars....All the warmongering claims duly parroted to the world by George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell, thereby damaging themselves forever.  read more »

When Richard Reeves set out to explain Ronald Reagan’s Presidency, he ran the risk—no, t  read more »

Here’s a charitable view of the Iraq War:    read more »

In what may be a high-water mark in complacent American self-praise, David Ignatius in The Washingto  read more »

Avarice and conspiracy invariably smell most foul when they seep into scenes of sacrifice and hope.  read more »

The physical wounds have mostly healed; the psychic wounds are going to take a little longer.  read more »

The authoritarian impulse of the White House Republicans is showing.  read more »