...more recent posts
Friday, Jun 27, 2003
je ne sais pas
I claim no special expertise in the ways of Dr. Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense. However, I've read quite a few transcripts of his interviews, and can usually understand what the man is trying to convey. And I do try to understand the context of the sound bites used in Dr. Paul's Words of Wisdom.
But I'm having serious trouble with this one. Trudy Rubin's article implies that Wolfowitz compared Iraq to post-liberation France in the context of a discussion of the emergence of a democratic state in post-invasion Iraq. But I have no way to verify this. Much of the interview with Rubin was on deep background, and she used just three short quotations. There is no transcript at DefenseLINK, despite the fact that 7 months have passed and the war is allegedly over.
The crux is that I can't conceive of any context in which this statement makes sense. If you're listening Dr. Paul, you've got to help me out here. Sacre merde, just what the hell were you talking about? The triumphant return of Charles de Gaulle? The rise of film noir? A common passion for goat cheese?
Ętes-vous un docteur des analogies d'imbeciles?
Paul Wolfowitz: Not just any optimist
Philadelphia Inquirer -- November 17, 2002
Trudy Rubin
A critique of Dr. Paul's analogy ...
Thoughtless in Time?
Foreign Policy in Focus -- February 18, 2003
By Pascale Combelles Siegel
previous in series of Dr. Paul's Words of Wisdom
older posts...