Again, in the race to arrive at the assessed halt of the Iranian nuclear-weapons program, lost in the dust-up is the necessary accompanying acknowledgment that it did exist. Now, even Ahmadinejad is hoping no one will notice. Please. Notice.
TEHRAN — The government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought Tuesday to gain a diplomatic edge abroad and a political windfall at home following the release of a U.S. intelligence estimate concluding that Tehran had halted a secret nuclear weapons program four years ago.
Iranian officials openly gloated Tuesday, demanding that Washington apologize for accusing them of pursuing weapons of mass destruction.
Words are being chosen carefully. However, arriving at the position of supporting the assessment of the cessation of a nuclear weapons program — and exploiting such for diplomatic advantage — carries with it a more-than-implied acknowledgement of its existence.
We Americans seem to be addicted to nuance. We love to argue ourselves into inaction and, at times, self-loathing. Be careful here. This is an addiction easily and readily fed by our enemies. Witness Iranian broadcasting cited within the same article.
Despite the report's more nuanced conclusions about Tehran's nuclear program, which noted that Iran could still enrich enough uranium to create a bomb between 2009 and 2015, observers sympathetic to Iran argued that it exonerated Tehran and would turn the diplomatic momentum against the U.S.
Iran's state-controlled radio and television channels Tuesday flooded airwaves with reports about the intelligence estimate, quoting leading Democrats such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling for a new approach to Iran. "The report acknowledged that it was becoming clear that Iran's plan is peaceful," a news reader announced.
An eagerness to criticize the administration of an opposing party often clouds the fact that the opposing party is actually formed from the same nation's people. Such careless domestic criticism — of which Pelosi's on the NIE and CIA interrogations was timid in comparison — aids an enemy who has been killing us since 1979 and is responsible for 10 percent of all U.S. casualties in Iraq to date, just from their EFP's alone. This does not include U.S. deaths by Iranian-made, -supplied, and -fielded mortars, RPG's, and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles . . . or AK-47's and ammo.
Make no mistake, a government that leads its public in chants of "Death to America" is an enemy. Make no mistake, a government that sends its special forces into Iraq to kill our soldiers is an enemy.
Not a lot of room for nuance there. At all. Shake the addiction. Please.
Iran
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