American Foreign Policy is Easy to Second Guess

Content producer David Anderson published an article entitled "America Can't Have a Foreign policy Based on Maybes." His article dealt with the NIE and Iran. Mr. Anderson argues that Bush is over playing the Iranian danger. I say not so fast.

President Bush has been called every manner of creature because he, along with most of the Congressional Democrats, believed the intelligence about Iraqi WMD. Now out comes the NIE and Mr. Bush is again vilified, but this time for NOT parroting the report. What gives here?

This NIE uses the phrase "assess with high confidence" to relay that Iran has stopped its atomic program. "Assess with high confidence" means "we're pretty sure," but I think it bears recalling the intelligence reports about Iraqi WMD were probably equally assessed, and remember, Bush is demonized for believing it because he wanted to believe it, according to the most generous of his critics. Fair enough. There may be truth in that supposition.

So why are Bush's political opponents so certain that THIS NIE is accurate? Because THEY want to believe it. If it is accurate, and I have no notion of how accurate it is or is not, but Bush's opposition gleefully grasps onto this NIE. Clearly Bush's position of being far more skeptical of Iran than the report is just feeds the frenzy of the Left. And maybe the Left is correct in their parroting of this report - maybe not.

But what is important is that Mr. Anderson's position is one of "calling on Americans to let Congress know that we do not want to see military action taken against Iran." And that is the completely wrong position, unless of course you are pushing an agenda as it is clear Mr. Anderson is doing. No crime there; I just believe his position is the wrong one.

Mr. Anderson argues the "United States should continue to take a diplomatic approach to the situation, working hand in hand with the international community to ensure that Iran's nuclear program remains halted - permanently. But what the United States cannot do is engage in military action against Iran. Any such move would be based purely on speculation, not on verifiable facts."