Kumbaya!

I am not happy right now. In fact, I don't know what I'm going to do if I hear the words "this administration" again. So what's the bad news? Well, there's a new report, or a politically-driven hatchet piece as I like to call it, released by the National Intelligence Estimate a couple of days ago that suggests that Iran gave up its nuclear program back in 2003. Yeah...well the problem with that is the fact that Iran continues to enrich uranium and block UN inspectors from visiting sites, which even this "report" points out. I'm curious to know what the NIE thinks the mullahs plan to do with all that baked uranium yellowcake. Needless to say, the far-left antiwar crowd and the libertarian Ron Paul movement are rejoicing over this. "We were lied to again!" or "The evil Dick Cheney was manipulating intelligence again!" These are just some of the fringe rants I've been reading. Believe it or not, the antiwar movement actually thinks that the Bush Administration wants to drag the United States into another war, when just today, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Iraq continued their murderous bombing campaigns in both Kabul and Baghdad, taking dozens more lives. I think its safe to say Bush knows we have our hands full right now. But when you have a despotic theocracy supplying IEDS and other arms to these terrorists, you have no choice but to use harsh rhetoric, as Bush has been doing. Sitting down and chatting with them will not make them change their ways, no matter how much we want it to be true.

Since I heard this report, I have been thinking, what if the NIE got it right? What if Iran realy did give up its nuclear program back in 2003?

Well, there's a problem. My biggest concern about Iran is not their nuclear program, but some of the other things they've been up to. Here's a short list of what the Iranian regime is involved in.

-Arming, financing, and supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon
-Arming, financing, and supporting Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian territories
-Supplying deadly IEDS to Jaish Al-Mahdi splinter cells in southern Iraq
-Supplying arms shipments to terrorists in Afghanistan
-According to the 9/11 commission report, Iran allowed Al-Qaeda terrorists to pass through its borders, possibly with knowledge of an impending attack on the United States
-The regime continues it brutal suppression against the Iranian people, often using force to crack down on protesters. A student leader at Tehran University was recently jailed
-Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs routinely make a mockery of reality by denying the Holocaust, threatening to wipe Israel off the map, and suggesting that there are no homosexuals in Iran.
-Executing homosexuals and stoning women to death for minor offenses

These are just some of the things the Iranians have been up to in recent months, and I didn't even mention that they continue to enrich uranium and defy the international community. This is a bloody theocracy that is more than willing to slaughter its own people just to maintain its grip on power. Supporting terrorists and promoting religious violence are government policy in Iran. For the NIE to release this report and undermine US credibility is nieve and stupid. As Colonel Oliver North might say, the only people who are benefiting from this right now are the ayatollahs who are chortling in their beards as America tears itself apart with political infighting.

But there is more to this. I think that the public is unable to understand the full scope of what's going on here. Back in September, Israel carried out an air raid on what many believe was a secret nuclear reactor in Syria. Since then, everyone has been silent over the issue. If you also remember, the US recently made a deal with North Korea to get them to give up their nuclear weapons. Well, intel reports coming out of Israel suggest that North Korea may have been cloning its nuclear reactor in Syria, which is not too hard to believe, considering how the North Koreans have manipulated and outsmarted the UN and the US for years. Syria and North Korea have also increased political ties, but again, no one seems to want to talk about this. In earlier posts, I have talked about the international community's unwillingness to accept the fact that the government of the Sudan is intentionally killing the people of Darfur. Well, the same thing is going on with Iran, Syria, and North Korea. The UN, the United States, and everyone else want to believe that North Korea is cooperating. They want to pretend that the Israeli air raid into Syria didn't happen, and they want to believe that Iran wants peace, when everything they have done contradicts such an assumption. Even if this NIE report is true, Iran is still on its way to mastering the nuclear fuel cycle. That means that they could switch back on their nuclear weapons prgram anytime (Israel's intel agency, the Mossad, believes this is already the case). Buried deep within this report is the suggestion that if this happened, a nuclear Iran could be possible in eighteen months.

In the end, this report could do just as much harm to America as any Revolutionary Guards contingent that has passed off explosively-formed penatrator IED's to terrorists in Iraq. The democrats, many of whom are praying for failure in Iraq every night, are already pouncing on this, accusing the Bush Admiistration of "manipulating intelligence" again. Senator Joe Biden even called the President a liar yesterday. It makes me sick to think that some of my leaders have more hatred and animosity towards the President than a terror-sponsoring state like Iran. If the dems opened up their eyes, they'd see that Israeli, British, and French intelligence aren't buying into this NIE report. The truth is, I trust the Israelis over the NIE because the Israelis are in touch with reality. Everyday, they are dealing with rockets being fired into their territory and understand the threat of Islamic terrorism. Nevertheless, the media is also touting this report, railing against the president for "instilling fear" over Iran at the Mideast peace conference. Seeing as Iran is doing everything possible to derail the peace process, we should be worried about them. But then again, perhaps the media, the far-left, and the isolationist conservatives are right. Maybe instead of isolating Iran, we should have invited them to the peace conference! Hell, why not invite Hamas too! Bush could embrace Ahmadinejad and Dick Cheney could pick up a banjo. Then the whole conference could break out singing "Kumbaya" and we could all live in peace. That would be great wouldn't it? If only we'd stop this useless warmongering...

In closing, I would like to say that Iran, Syria, and North Korea's nuclear development does not bother me nearly as much as their horrific torture and oppression of their own people. To suggest that we should buddy up with a tyrant like Kim Jong Il so we can get his nukes is irresponsible. Remember that the biggest human tragedies in history were committed without nuclear weapons. That's why I consider to invasion of Iraq justified. When we went in there, we discovered mass graves of untold thousands, something far more terrifying than any stockpile of WMD's.