Contrary to the obsessive insistence of the White House press corps and hyper-partisan Democratic leaders that the revised National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear weapons program proves President Bush is hell-bent for World War III, the document indicates that reform of American spy craft is advancing, and U.S. policy on the issue has been prudent and effective.
After the intelligence failures in the months before the 9/11 attacks and the WMD errors that preceded the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein, now comes a careful, public recalibration of our best estimate of the status of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Critics should be cheering this development, as well as the NIE’s observation that U.S.-led international pressure prompted Iran’s apparent decision to halt the controversial program. Serious observers will also note the juxtaposition of Iran’s 2003 decision and the decisive U.S. action in Iraq. Firmness in one place often pays unexpected dividends elsewhere.
Bush’s critics should take several deep breaths, then read the NIE, especially its recommendations D and E, which make clear that Bush is exactly right in continuing to warn of the lethal implications of Iran’s nuclear program and to call for continued international pressure on Tehran.
“Iranian entities are continuing to develop a range of technical capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so,” the NIE warns. It also warns that “we do not have sufficient intelligence to judge confidently whether Tehran is willing to maintain the halt of its nuclear weapons program indefinitely, while it weighs its options, or whether it will or already has set specific deadlines or criteria that will prompt it to restart the program.”
Sadly, instead of deep breaths, critics are more likely to continue to exhibit Bush Derangement Syndrome on a grand scale. Typical is Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden of Delaware. Noting Bush’s statement that he didn’t get the final version of the Iran NIE until a week ago, Biden declared: “That’s not believable. I refuse to believe that. If that’s true, he has the most incompetent staff in American, modern American history, and he is one of the most incompetent presidents in modern American history.”
The key statement there is Biden’s admission that he refuses to believe a statement that makes absolute sense to any non-BDS sufferer who is familiar with the NIE process. That process requires several months to produce a final document because it goes through multiple levels of review. Also, major components, especially the confidence levels attached to particular conclusions, are subject to revision until the last moment before the president is briefed on the document. Biden’s refusal to believe Bush and attaching hyperbolic significance to the refusal is symptomatic of an advanced stage of BDS that is all too common in Washington these days.
