The US NIE – What the hells going on here???
Did the NIE conclude there was a nuclear weapons program freeze in Iran because the usual criminals (Rumsfeld, Rove) are no longer around to help manipulate the information? Probably not… Perhaps the Bush administration has concluded it cannot “get away with” a war on Iran. After all the NIE finding of no active nuclear program might just be what Israel needs to help clear the way and hasten them to go it alone.
It seems a Nuclear Weapons program has several major components; build a nuclear warhead, develop an effective ballistic missile system and learn to enrich uranium. The latter components are critical and lend themselves to hiding a program in plain sight. Who can say much about a peaceful energy program and a defensive missile system and beside that their “friends” can make a lot of money off of these programs along the way. Once these efforts are mature then building a warhead is all that remains. Iran wants nukes and has a program and the authors of NIE look like a bunch of third graders. The NIE report is a very suspicious pile of bull-shit.
I don’t want to see any country, anywhere “get nukes”, but I’m not too freaked-out about Iran having one either. Israel with the bomb and Iran trying to obtain the bomb is a far more dangerous prospect than simply Iran with the bomb. I agree with the Chirac point-of-view, Iran with a bomb would likely lead to some sort of détente. It should not take much for all to understand that a nuclear exchange would be pointless and would run counter to their own regional and global interests. Iran with “the bomb” will create a middle-east that is different than the one that is is emerging. In either event it seems the US Israeli hegemony in the middle-east is breaking down and the changing times don’t seem to tolerate the dominance that Israel and the US have enjoyed in decades past.
Israel with it’s security paradigm in shambles after the recent Lebanon war can now only be more paranoid because of the bogus NIE report and the perceived abandonment by the US. Israel will surely be tempted to act before Iran can become a nuclear power. The destruction of Iraq by the US has only helped to bring about the dissolution of the US/Israeli hegemony over the middle-east. The US used to enjoy being the influential head at table but now the Iraq War has effectively left it looking for a seat at the table. The US watches anxiously as it’s Coalition partners take a window of opportunity to bail out of Iraq in the relative calm since the surge… Once this exodus complete what is to follow this calm may be very ugly.
Iran’s leader-ship are pragmatists and they are not bent on self destruction. They are set on expanding their influence and security in the region. As are all other middle-east players. It it would not serve them well to assault Israel. As the balance of power continues to shift in the middle-east it will be increasingly difficult to act unilaterally against Iran. Israel has a diminishing window where it can act against Iran and “get away with it. As a new balance of power emerges one hopes that there will not be some messianic or apocalyptic response from the prevailing US Administration(s) or even more likely their paranoid partner Israel.
See collection of links about NIE report and it’s aftermath below:
Iran’s Ballistic Missile Program
2 comments
It seems if Israel “goes it alone” the likely response from Iran would be a ballistics missile attck on Israel. This would play nicely for the US arguing an anti-missile defense system in Europe.
Some thoughts from doctor Kissenger.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/12/AR2007121202331.html