Thursday, December 06, 2007

A tale of two columns

Both are about the recently released NIE. The first, by Rosa Brooks, points out some weaknesses of the report before pointing out the obvious.
To most of humanity, the NIE contains extremely good news: If international pressure led Iran to stop trying to make nuclear weapons in 2003, it means that the Iranian regime is less dangerously crazy than it occasionally seems. As the NIE notes, it appears that "Tehran's decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs." In other words: We can probably cut some deals with these people.

But to Bush, the NIE isn't good news, it's "a warning signal." The report shows that "they had the program. They halted the program. And the reason why it's a warning signal is that they could restart it." So full speed ahead with bellicose rhetoric and punitive sanctions.

We can now say (with "high confidence") that this administration really knows how to screw up a good thing.
The second, in the Washington Post, is from the Bombastic, Blustering Buffoon of the Beltway, John Bolton. You can just feel the quivering rage of his moustache as he berates the various intelligence agencies for not releasing a report that he would approve of. He strikes all the required Republican talking points, but in the end, the Blustering Buffoon is like a diet soda. You get nothing from it but an unpleasant taste in your mouth.

// posted by montag @ 6:52 AM
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