Great news! In 2003, under tremendous international pressure prompted by American leadership, Iran voluntarily decided to halt its nuclear weapons program. Today’s revelation of the Iranian turnabout marks the fourth time the Bush Administration has succeeded in convincing dangerous, rogue nations to abandon WMD programs, accomplishments certain to be ranked alongside America’s great foreign policy achievements. With little more than a year remaining in office, President Bush has secured a place among America’s great Presidents.
Not exactly what you’re getting from today’s new stories, is it? In yet another demonstration of the media’s undeclared ambition to bash Bush on every story, news coverage of the just released National Intelligence Estimate [NIE] has completely misled the American people. While the New York Times, CNN, et al breathlessly froth about "spy failures" and "weakening President Bush during his last year in office" and proving "the President’s rationale for an aggressive foreign policy" to be off base, the report in fact affirms the necessity of Bush’s tough stances since 9/11.
On January 20, 2001, Iran and Libya were in the process of developing nuclear weapons, North Korea already had nukes or was on the home stretch, and everyone on earth, including the intelligence agencies of France, Germany, Russia, Britain, Israel and the USA believed Iraq possessed WMD, chemical and biological if not nuclear. For the record, also on board regarding Saddam’s possession of WMD were President Clinton, Vice President Gore, Senators Clinton, Kerry, Edwards and Obama, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, to name just a few. Now, a few days less than seven years later, Iran, Libya, and North Korea have quit their nuclear weapons programs, and Iraq has been cleared of them, one way or another. Understanding what brought about these auspicious changes is instructive for foreign policy makers of future administrations.
According to the National Intelligence Estimate, available for viewing at http://www.dni.gov/press
In a moment of candor, "Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, whose country abandoned weapons of mass destruction programmes in 2003, said that at one stage Libya had come close to building a nuclear bomb…It was the first time any Libyan official has confirmed that [Libya] was trying to build a bomb," according to a July 24, 2006 Reuters story. Saddam’s demise in Iraq, including the decimation of Iraq’s military and Saddam’s ignominious capture, played a significant role in convincing Gaddafi to agree with President Bush’s vision of "a better way forward" for Libya.
The North Koreans had played President Clinton and his hapless State Department for fools by signing an agreement in 1994 that effectively opened the door for North Korea’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. As late as June 2000, long after Republican and Democrat lawmakers had voiced concerns about North Korea’s violations of the 1994 pact, Clinton was still helping the North Koreans by easing "longstanding sanctions against North Korea under the Trading with the Enemy Act, the Defense Production Act, and the Export Administration Act, clearing the way for increased trade, financial transactions, and investment." The pocket book was exactly the location of President Bush’s persuasive efforts to convince the North Koreans to play nice and shutdown their nuclear program, which they did in March of this year.
These are monumental achievements, akin to President Reagan’s conquest of the Soviet Union. In some ways the threat posed by relatively puny nations possessing nuclear weapons is greater than that of the massive arsenal of the old USSR. Mutual Assured Destruction worked during the cold war because both sides had much to lose in the event of a nuclear exchange, a hindrance not applicable to death-loving terrorists. Thus, the unreported details of today’s released National Intelligence Estimate affirm the correctness of President Bush’s mid-east policies and the continued need for stalwart and tenacious stances against Ahmadinejad and his ilk. A few quotes from the NIE you won’t read in the New York Times drive home this point:
"We also assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons." "We assess with high confidence that until fall 2003, Iranian military entities were working under government direction to develop nuclear weapons. " "We continue to assess with low confidence that Iran probably has imported at least some weapons-usable fissile material." "We judge with moderate confidence that the earliest possible date Iran would be technically capable of producing enough HEU [Highly Enriched Uranium] for a weapon is late 2009, but that this is very unlikely." "Iranian entities are continuing to develop a range of technical capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons." "We assess with moderate confidence that convincing the Iranian leadership to forgo eventual development of nuclear weapons will be difficult." "We assess with moderate confidence that Iran probably would use covert facilities — rather than its declared nuclear sites — for the production of highly enriched uranium for a weapon." "We assess with high confidence that Iran has the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity to produce nuclear weapons if it decides to do so."
President Bush today said, "Here’s what we know. We know that they’re still trying to learn how to enrich uranium. We know that enriching uranium is an important step in a country whose desire it is to develop a weapon. We know they had a program. I think the NIE makes it clear that Iran needs to be taken seriously as a threat to peace. My opinion hasn’t changed."
Thank God.
The mainstream media’s failure to accurately report this story once again reminds average Americans of the value of self-reliance. Factual and fair reporting must be searched for these days, and Americans who fail to dig deep for the truth are vulnerable to journalistic malfeasance on a grand scale. At bottom, corruption of the "fourth estate" is an attack on the First Amendment. Freedom of the press is rendered meaningless when mercenary reporters spin, slant, and — to call it by its name — falsify events. We can only hope President Bush’s contributions to American security someday get their due.
