A sudden conversion

Paul Wolfowitz may have been one of Bush's biggest backers going into the Iraq War. But he's taken an impressively independent stance at the World Bank, calling on his old boss to take meaningful action against poverty:

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz said Tuesday that he wants to see the United States contribute more to fight poverty and promote global development.

“I'd like to see the United States do more,” the former U.S. deputy defence secretary, known as the prime architect of the Iraq war, told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

“I have to emphasize that I'm not here any longer as a (U.S. President George) Bush administration official, and I don't have to defend their record.”

I'm sure Wolfowitz is grateful for that latter point. And from the article, he seems to still be in denial as to the impact Iraq has had on the U.S.' ability to fund other priorities.

But even if Wolfowitz won't admit to past failures, it's nonetheless significant to see yet another supposed Bush loyalist willing to speak out about Bushco's failures. And it's particularly so to the extent that it shows that even a few months away from administration-controlled flows of information can lead a key policy architect to a much more thorough view of the world. The only question now is whether the administration is too entrenched in damage-control mode to listen.