Time To Write Off The World Bank?

So what would a Wolfowitz World Bank be like? This article - Wolfowitz at the World Bank's Door - is spotlighted today at antiwar.com because it captures some important and very probable repercussions of Bush's bizarre nomination.

Of course, the biggest and most obvious problem about appointing Wolfowitz to anything higher than White House Toilet Cleaner is that it rewards failure and shows that the Bush White House is still set on its militant neo-con agenda. On the other hand, we already know that.

The next biggest problem with the nomination is that further erodes the credibility of the World Bank at a time when it badly needs to become all that it claims to be. Just look at this for starters:

Created as part of the post-WWII constellation of globalist organizations (which includes the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization), the World Bank has an entirely unearned reputation for promoting economic development and relief around the world. In fact, it has done more to sow misery, poverty, corruption, and war than practically any institution in history. This is why Wolfowitz, a warmonger and disciple of Soviet terror master Leon Trotsky, is a perfect choice to serve as World Bank commissar.

In his recently published book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, economist John Perkins describes the role played by the World Bank in a global loan-sharking scheme. Covertly recruited by the National Security Agency in the late 1960s, Perkins was dispatched to various countries — including Indonesia and Panama — to help induce national leaders to take out huge World Bank loans to fund mammoth infrastructure programs.

According to Perkins, he was just one Economic Hit Man (EHM) among thousands plying the same trade worldwide. If an EHM is successful, writes Perkins, "the [World Bank] loans are so large that the debtor is forced to default on its payments after a few years. When this happens, then like the Mafia we demand our pound of flesh. This often includes one or more of the following: control over United Nations votes, the installation of military bases, or access to precious resources…. Of course, the debtor still owes us money — and another country is added to our global empire."

Economic Hit Men aren’t the only weapons in the Power Elite's arsenal. Perkins also refers to "Jackals," who are sent to deal with the most refractory foreign leaders by fomenting revolutions, or staging assassinations. When all else fails, Barber Conable informed us, it’s time to send out the bombers. Writes Perkins: "When the Jackals fail, young Americans are sent in to kill and die."

That's a pretty bleak outlook. Is the World Bank really such a totally corrupt instrument of corporate greed? If so, it needs to be investigated, reformed and - if necessary - replaced. Wolfowitz's appointment would only stengthen anti-globalization sentiment and block any chances of such real progress.