World Bank in a world of trouble

Paul Wolfowitz is about to get fired from the presidency of the World Bank, the nonprofit organization dedicated to eradicating world poverty.

The former deputy secretary of defense, who planned the 2003 Iraq invasion and once served on the staff of the late Washington senator, "Scoop" Jackson, is embroiled in a scandal over a large salary raise given to World Bank employee Shaha Ali Riza.

The femme fatale is Wolfowitz's girlfriend who was given "a promotion and a 36 percent pay increase. The following year, she received a 7.5 percent raise, bringing her salary to $193,590, which is more than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earns," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Riza's pay increase is not the only problem at the World Bank. The Bank, as it is commonly known, has faced criticism from Democrats and Republicans for decades. One of the strongest criticisms of The Bank is that it has the highest paid employees of any international governmental organization, yet its purpose is to eradicate poverty. Riza's new $193,590 salary even has the added bonus of being tax-free.

As soon as the news broke last Friday, European finance ministers began making statements calling for Wolfowitz's resignation. Most Europeans despise Wolfowitz, who many Americans might remember from the opening scene of Fahrenheit 9/11 as the official who spits in his hand, wipes it onto his already oily hair, then combs his hair back, inserts the comb into his mouth and repeats the process.

In the end, it seems likely that Wolfowitz will have to step down from the presidency of the world's largest anti-poverty bank, but the irony of paying anyone $200,000 a year to work at The Bank is another story.

To negotiate as an honorable people

Last week's attack by terrorists on the Iraqi Parliament reminded many Americans of a similarly brazened attack on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon during the 1968 Tet Offensive.

In both cases the targets attacked were inside a "safe zone"; the Green Zone in Baghdad, where Iraq's Parliament is located, is tightly guarded. Most experts believe the only way anyone co–uld have smuggled a bomb inside is by using an Iraqi bodyguard, who can enter without being thoroughly checked.

The attack resulted in the division of the Iraqi Parliament. All members of Moqtada al-Sadr's Shia party, which makes up about 10 percent of the government, resigned. Al-Sadr is a powerful man and was able to organize a rally in Najaf last week, where over 100,000 Iraqis marched and demanded a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal.

When the Tet Offensive drew to a close, legendary news correspondent Walter Cronkite ended the CBS news hour with a speech. Cronkite's words seem just as poignant and applicable today as they did nearly 40 years ago.

He said, "To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems to be the only realistic yet unsatisfactory, conclusion.

"On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then, will be to negotiate — not as victims, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could."