Has the recent NIE report stating Iran gave up its nuke program in 2003 stopped Bush’s push for war with Iran? Temporarily, sure. In fact, it may stymie the administration so much that they will not get the war with Iran bandwagon rolling again before the Presidential race heats up, effectively stopping any military action against Iran.
But who knows what Bush will do. What we do know is that despite the revelation that he knew about the contents of the NIE report in August, he made dire warnings about WWIII in October regarding Iran getting nuclear weapons. That is, he knowingly lied about the threat of Iran developing nukes. Moreover, he is trying to defend that statement by claiming the new NIE report does not diminish the Iranian threat!
The sheer gall of it. Fierce anti-war critic Rep. John Murtha comes back from Iraq and says the escalation is working. The NIE comes out and says Iran is not developing nukes and Bush keeps rolling with the ‘bomb Iran, I was never wrong position.’ True, Murtha still wants us to leave Iraq, but his position is undercut by his claim the escalation has reduced violence in Iraq. The fact undercut Bush’s position, but he does not care.
This is a great example as to how to deal with facts contrary to your position. Ignore them or claim they actually support you. Bush has a prestigious intelligence report basically eviscerate his claims regarding Iranian nuclear ambitions, and he turns it around and says the report bolsters his position! How sweet is that!
Murtha could have done the same in Iraq, saying something to the effect of ‘we told you the escalation would not produce the political reconciliation necessary for stability in Iraq.’ In Murtha’s case the claim would be true, unlike Bush’s.
And the knockout punch by the right on this new NIE report? Attack the messenger. I have discussed this before; it is a time honored messaging tactic so I will not go into details. But essentially Limbaugh, Bolton, et al criticized the report as inaccurate and politically motivated. So according to them the NIE, comprising all 15 or so security/intelligence entities in the U.S., wrote this report to embarrass the President. In fact, Bolton went so far as to call for a Congressional investigation! Why? Because having an NIE that does not match the administration’s agenda must be politically motivated.
Read that again. The report did not match the administration’s rhetoric and agenda. That is the classic definition of politically motivated. So the report is not politically motivated. But Bolton wants an investigation into the report’s political motivation because it was not politically motivated! Genius! Again, the Republicans pull off a masterful Orwellian double speak. In other words, to not be politically motivated is to be politically motivated.
Of course the underlying logic for the neo-cons is that anything that contradicts their precious world view must be entirely fabricated by the forces of left wing darkness. So even the most conservative of entities, the intelligence community, is not above this labeling if they state ‘facts’ that question the neocons’ viewpoints.
Granted, there are some solid conservatives who do not share this view. Joe Scarborough attacked Bush as either lying or stupid. Pat Robertson wants an investigation into what Bush really knew in October when he was making Armageddon comments. But they are in the minority.
What we are generally seeing though is the warmongering spin machine of Cheney/Bush kicking immediately into gear the moment bad news comes out (bad meaning contrary to their agenda). This spin arose almost automatically. It is phenomenal to watch, as the progressives have nothing of the sort. It is as if conservatives are genetically predisposed to know exactly what to say and when to say it. Actually they are trained, but that is another story. Whatever it is, progressives need to get some of what they got.
The bottom line is that Bush and co. are already trying to turn lemons into lemonade so they can bomb Iran as soon as possible.
LOL, oh this makes me laugh. Let’s see, Iran currently is wanting to start up 20 additional enrichment facilities just two years after this original post. Hmmmm looks like that NIE report was wrong. And Bush was right!
Left by Joyce M/Blythe on December 8th, 2009