Nothing Has Changed
President Bush’s response to the issuance of the new NIE report on Iran’s program to develop nuclear weapons is “nothing has changed.” Although the report does a complete u-turn from the 2005 estimate and now states that Iran has not had a covert nuclear development program since 2003, Bush continues to charge that Iran is the greatest danger to the world.
He was told that a revised estimate was being written last August yet persisted in drawing a World War III analogy about Iran in October.
His administration stubbornly refuses to broach serious discussions with the Iran regime.
The same pressure on the intelligence agencies that lead to the erroneous conclusions about Iraq are at play here. It is easy to imagine the Bush/Cheney insistence to find Iran culpable leading to intelligence reports that gave the administration what it wanted to hear. It is easy to believe that the administration only heard what its ideology wanted it to hear.
What has changed is a new intelligence director more concerned with getting it right then staying in the good graces of the administration, along with an unpopular lame-duck presidency and an opposition Congress.
The Bush policy since 9/11 has been driven by tactics intended to scare the American people and the rest of the world, regardless of whether facts supported their position or not. We have just a little more than a year to go before they are out and hopefully, this latest news, while not stemming the rhetoric, will limit their action options.
He was told that a revised estimate was being written last August yet persisted in drawing a World War III analogy about Iran in October.
His administration stubbornly refuses to broach serious discussions with the Iran regime.
The same pressure on the intelligence agencies that lead to the erroneous conclusions about Iraq are at play here. It is easy to imagine the Bush/Cheney insistence to find Iran culpable leading to intelligence reports that gave the administration what it wanted to hear. It is easy to believe that the administration only heard what its ideology wanted it to hear.
What has changed is a new intelligence director more concerned with getting it right then staying in the good graces of the administration, along with an unpopular lame-duck presidency and an opposition Congress.
The Bush policy since 9/11 has been driven by tactics intended to scare the American people and the rest of the world, regardless of whether facts supported their position or not. We have just a little more than a year to go before they are out and hopefully, this latest news, while not stemming the rhetoric, will limit their action options.
posted by John Weiss at 12:05 PM
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