An administration that had cited Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons as the rationale for an aggressive foreign policy — as an attempt to head off World War III, as President Bush himself put it only weeks ago — now has in its hands a classified document that undercuts much of the foundation for that approach.[...]
It will certainly weaken international support for tougher sanctions against Iran, as a senior administration official grudgingly acknowledged. And it will raise questions, again, about the integrity of America’s beleaguered intelligence agencies, including whether what are now acknowledged to have been overstatements about Iran’s intentions in a 2005 assessment reflected poor tradecraft or political pressure.
Or I guess we could just as well ask, were they right in 2005 and wrong now?
It all has shades of wagging the dog if you ask me. We get drug around by the nose in a political sense, and as a famously leaked document has said, intelligence is fixed around policy. It may also be fixed around influencing policy.
I could try to figure it out and try to act toward some resolution of our political situation. Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind. (Thank you, Donovan.)
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