George W. Bush, like the Bourbons, learns nothing and forgets nothing. That is how the rest of the world will view the nomination of Paul Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank. To put the unilateralist architect of the Iraq war in charge of the world's premier multilateral development agency is, many must think, to put a fox in charge of the chicken coop. The nomination does not lack merit. Yet it is objectionable, all the same.

The proposed move of Mr Wolfowitz to the bank has a historical parallel: that of Robert McNamara, US defence secretary at the time of the Vietnam war and bank president from 1968 to 1981. Mr McNamara, like Mr Wolfowitz, was a brilliant man. Mr McNamara, like Mr Wolfowitz, was tarnished by his association with an unpopular war.