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Recent sanctions are why Iran stopped their Nuke program...4 years ago! Huh?

By haystack Posted in Democrats | Intelligence | Iran | Middle East | Republicans | War — Comments (19) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Democrats have been bleeding through their bulging eyeballs with outrage over this President's alleged misuse of Intelligence in order to deceive the American people and wage a war of "blood for oil" for YEARS. They have vilified Bush AND they have trashed the Intelligence community relentlessly, accusing them of everything from being Bush's puppets to being the most incompetent group of organizations to ever serve the American people.

Give them a report they like, or one that fits their agenda of pacifism, retreat, and capitulation, and BANG! Magically, the Intelligence community instantaneously transforms into some surreal beacon of hope for a brighter Democrat future.

Having taken credit for requesting a report that coincidently aligns with a promised Obama or Clinton appeasement of the man who wants to see Israel destroyed, the Democrats believe they have George Bush right where they want him. Of course, they also seem to believe...NEED to believe that Iran is but a fluffy little fuzz ball and has been since 2003.

Um, hang on a cotton-picking minute here folks.

Vowing to impeach both George Bush AND Dick Cheney for lying to the American people and waging a war they supported (while now suggesting they only did so because they had been duped by this evil Administration and the ordered fabrications of his marionettes in the Intelligence Community), the Democrats have been slinging spittle of outrage at TV cameras around the globe for YEARS over this Iraq debacle. Basing their broken promises to end the war on half-truths and outright lies about what's actually happening on the ground, these people insist we should just as quickly accept a report they think might benefit them now?

My cynicism knows no bounds.

More below the fold...

Surely there is no connection between the timing of this report, and the fact that Iran was missing from the Annapolis parlay? Surely this has nothing to do with Bush's promise to have an Israeli-Palestinian agreement by the end of his term? It just can't be possible that an appeased Iran might lower oil prices...so long as we get to say we've been tough on them while they say "I told you so?"

Don't worry, I am not alone in seeing the dilemma this poses for the Democrats, because it would mean they'd have to "concede that Iran, like Libya, likely came to a conjecture (around say early spring 2003?) that it was not wise for regimes to conceal WMD programs, given the unpredictable, but lethal American military reaction." And, my doubts about the validity of the claims that Iran has been out of the A-bomb business since 2003 are shared by others as well.

Walk with me, if you will, back in time to the pre-invasion days when our country was united behind wanting to punish the people responsible for the death and destruction and mayhem we suffered on September 11, 2001. Remember the unity and bipartisanship? Remember the hand-holding-hand times when we all felt that anger and pain and frustration? And the indignant resignation that it would NOT be forgotten, and would NOT go unanswered?

Remember, then, how quick the Democrats seized on our not having found any WMD's after Saddam fell, and their subsequent squealing about having been lied to and how miserably our Intelligence operations had failed...some even suggesting the Intelligence community was nothing more than a collective Bush puppet, twitching on command like a marionette. Remember, too, how much traction the Democrats have enjoyed with that meme...ultimately leading (in large part) to their sweep to the Majority in 2006.

Now cometh the National Intelligence Estimate Report concerning Iran's Nuclear intentions and capabilities. Before the ink has even dried we hear the squeals of ecstasy from the Democrats telling us how right they have been all along about Iran.

I have a problem with that.

Am I too cynical in wondering how it is that the Democrats can look us in the eye with a straight face after years of accusing this President of misusing Intelligence to justify the Iraq war, only to misuse Intelligence themselves from the very same organization now, operating under the very same Administration?

Jay Rockefeller:

The key judgments show that the intelligence community has learned its lessons from the Iraq debacle. It has issued judgments that break sharply with its own previous assessments, and they reflect a real difference from the views espoused by top administration officials.

Harry Reid:

I hope this administration reads this report carefully and appropriately adjusts its rhetoric and policy vis-à-vis Iran

Reid, further quoted in CQ added:

The administration should begin this process by finally undertaking a diplomatic surge necessary to effectively address the challenges posed by Iran

Russ Feingold:

Iran's nuclear program remains a serious concern but it is clear from the [intelligence estimate] that vigorous and coordinated diplomacy is the right way to approach it.

And, my personal fave, Silvestre Reyes,chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who said the document:

"indicates that Iran may be responsive to the international pressure it has received as a result of its flagrant refusal to adhere to [U.N.] Security Council resolutions."

Reyes urged Bush to pursue a "clear-eyed, serious diplomatic effort, with both carrots and sticks, to prevent Iran from restarting its nuclear weapons program."

Um, folks? The sanctions are freaking recent. If they stopped in 2003 then our tough talk and shuttle diplomacy with friends and allies had NOTHING to do with this. If anything, the very war the Democrats insist we should have never fought would more likely be the cause...IF they really DID stop the weapons program back then.

And just to make sure the Democrats keep the most favorable spin status, we get the ever-neutral CNN/Time piece that puts the screws to President Bush before he ever gets the chance to explain where we are with that whole 'silly' business about WW III:

Bombing Iran, it seems, is now off the table. There's no other reasonable take on the latest National Intelligence Estimate that concludes Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

But there is also no doubt that the Bush White House was behind this NIE. While the 16 intelligence agencies that make up the "intelligence community" contribute to each National Intelligence Estimate, you can bet that an explosive, 180-degree turn on Iran like this one was greenlighted by the President.

And explode is what the hawks in and outside the Administration are about to do. They were counting on Bush being the one President prepared to take on Iran. As recently as last month, Bush warned of World War III if Iran so much as thought about building a bomb. Bush's betrayal is not going to go down well. The neocons, clinging to a sliver of hope, will accuse the intelligence community of incompetence, pointing out that as late as 2005 it estimated "with high confidence" that Iran was building a bomb.

The only thing that's going to explode is my head...now the neocons, who once supposedly nuanced intelligence to wage an unpopular war will be calling their own errand boys incompetent?

This is surreal.