Focus - Iran

FOCUS - Iran

The release of the National Intelligence Estimate, then events in Pakistan have conspired to dislodge the Iranian nuclear threat from center stage. It is key that we remain focused. Iran remains the #1 threat to the interests of the United States.

The NIE’s facile conclusions, actually a coup engineered by ex-State officials who have been chronic appeasers, had to be accepted by the Bush administration because if not the report would have been leaked and the administration would have been accused of a cover up.

Very little has changed. Our view is that Iran has simply delayed warhead production so it can buy time for the more difficult task of enriching uranium. That’s the hard part. Once you have the fuel any fool knows you can make the bomb in months.

We have been a paladin for tough sanctions all along yet given that the release of the NIE gave both Russia and China the excuse to back away from meaningful sanctions the irony is that this piece of dagger diplomacy makes an Israeli attack even more likely.

Robert Craven