1 Let’s Pie Paul Wolfowitz
Assassination? There’s a More Effective Way to ‘Take Someone Out’

BY Rick Sterling
Tuesday, August 30, 2005

If Paul Wolfowitz thinks his enemies are trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it. This man is a terrific danger. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability.

I would have thought it illegal to make a statement calling for the assassination of someone. However we have seen that it is not. On a television show with hundreds of thousands of viewers, “700 Club” Reverend Pat Robertson issued a threat identical to the above except it was against the democratically elected President of Venezuela. In response to the embarrassment, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld dismissed the issue by saying, “Private citizens say all kinds of things all the time.” No charges have been laid against Robertson so evidently it is not illegal.

It is tempting to call for the assassination of Paul Wolfowitz. More than any other single individual, he is responsible for the deaths of nearly two thousand US troops and over one hundred thousand innocent Iraquis. He and his policies have undermined international peace and security, squandered billions of dollars needed for health and education, and generally caused international opinion to increasingly view the United States as a rogue state. His death would seem to be a measure of justice.

However, I don’t want to do that. For one thing, I don’t believe in the death penalty. For another, it would give an excuse to those who want to take away our freedoms at home. They would exploit the assassination of Paul Wolfowitz to ratchet repression against those opposing their policies.

A good old-fashioned knee-capping of Paul Wolfowitz would seem appropriate, sending a message to those of his ilk that they are not immune from all the pain they are causing. However, that too would probably be counter-productive. The same repression would be unleashed and I am sure Fox T.V. would have lots of sympathetic portrayals of the courageous chicken-hawk.

Instead how about this: a good old-fashioned pie or tomato in the face? If one can call for the assassination of someone with impunity, what risk is there in calling for the pie-ing of someone? So let it be said: “If Paul Wolfowitz thinks someone is out to pie him, I think we really ought to do it. This man is a terrific danger. We have the ability to pie him and I think the time has come to exercise that ability.”

I suggest that John Bolton to the list of good targets. He is part and parcel of the Wolfowitz gang that has hijacked U.S. foreign policy, destroyed so much and killed so many innocent or well-meaning people. A pie in the face—hopefully well-publicized—would underscore the truth that he does not represent the best of America ... only the worst.

Rick Sterling is an engineer at UC Berkeley and a Bay Area activist. Send comments to opinion@dailycal.org

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http://www.dailycal.org/particle.php?id=19246

2 Well, I can't say I blame Shiite pilgrims for being nervous. Sounds like poor crowd control, though; the bottleneck should have been on the other side of the bridge. What a tragedy.

3 Looks like The Debka guys might be right this time.

Baghdad Stampede

4 If the Sunnis want to antagonize the majority population and probably get exterminated in the bargain, hey, that's on them.