The Useless Tree

Mr Wolfowitz, Please Read the Classics

    Paul Wolfowitz, having overseen the disastrous US policy in Iraq (remember: he was the one who publicly contradicted General Shinseki), has now made a mess of the World Bank.  He is cutting a pathetic figure of late, hanging on to his job when it is obvious that he should have resigned long ago.  Just like his old mentor, Rumsfeld.  Just like Gonzales at Justice.  Just like the Bush administration generally.  They just don’t know how to do the right thing, how to recognize that their policies are not working, or that their malfeasance has accumulated to unsustainable levels.  They can’t let go.

     I think of Confucius and Mencius here.  Especially how Mencius thought of Confucius:

When it was proper to go into
office, then to go into it; when it was proper to keep retired from office,
then to keep retired from it; when it was proper to continue in it long,
then to continue in it long – when it was proper to withdraw from it
quickly, then to withdraw quickly:– that was the way of Confucius.

 Mr. Wolfowitz, it is proper to withdraw from it quickly.  The whole world can see this (perhaps not George Bush).  Just do the right thing  – don’t hold out for the money, it makes you all the more unseemly.

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Sam Crane
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One response to “Mr Wolfowitz, Please Read the Classics”

  1. The Cloudwalking Owl Avatar
    The Cloudwalking Owl

    Speaking as someone who at one time had a little bit of political influence, it can be really, really hard to give it up. (Of course, you don’t “give it up”; you realize that it no longer exists and stop making a fool of yourself.) And when it finally dawned on me that people were not returning my phone calls the teachings of Confucius came to my mind.
    I’m also reminded of something I once read about “Stuffy Dowding”. He was the air marshall that if anyone can be said was personally responsible for winning WWII, it was him. He had set up the radar, command and control system, and fighter defenses of Britain that allowed him to win the Battle of Britain. And that kept the Germans from invading England when the army was pretty much defenseless.
    Dowding was pretty much hated by the air force establishment who were committed to the bomber and didn’t like his style much either. So almost immediately after winning this crucial battle, Dowding was forced to retire. He said something to the effect that “I’m not going to complain. We won the battle and a lot of very good men died in it. Everything else is trivial.”
    That’s leaving the stage with class—.

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