If the NIE Is Right About Iran, Thank "GW's Cowboy Diplomacy" for It

"Accepting the theory that this stuff is true this time, maybe a case could be made that diplomacy stopped Iran's nuke program, as in what was the diplomatic message?

Bush placed 'em in the axis of evil. He puts 'em in the axis of evil, followed by the use of force in Iraq and the region, floating the 5th Fleet right outside Iran's door. This is sort of like in the 1980s. It's got some parallels to the eighties, Reagan's message of diplomacy to the Soviets was the evil empire, "the bombing starts in five minutes," or it's the evil empire, "tear down this wall," followed by missiles in Europe and SDI with the additional message of "We will bury you." You came here in the UN and told us you would bury us. We're going to bury you. And that brought Gorbachev to the table.

So you gotta acknowledge that in some fashion, diplomacy, calling 'em the axis of evil, might have been a factor here. Now, I know the Democrats don't call it diplomacy. I don't care what the Democrats call it. They may call it bullying, cowboy diplomacy, whatever. It was diplomacy. It was words. The State Department hated it. So what? State Department hates everything that works, otherwise there's no need for them. Don't tell me about the State Department. I couldn't care less. Get this. I want to read this to you again here from Norman Podhoretz. He quotes a little sentence here from the NIE report: "With opportunities for Iran to achieve its security, prestige, and goals for regional influence in other ways." In other words, we must use negotiations and sanctions, with the opportunities for Iran to achieve its security, its prestige, and its goals for regional influence. This is tantamount to saying, "Okay, nut job Ahmadinejad and the mullahs, we want you guys to have self-esteem." This is an intelligence estimate? Sounds like an encounter group. "Okay, Mahmoud, we want you to have your self-esteem, you and the mullahs. We want you to feel good about yourselves. We want you to have prestige. We understand that you people as Persians have a very, very concerned status about how you are perceived in your part of the world and we know that you want to appear to be on top of that world, and we're all for making that happen, Mahmoud. We want you to have your prestige, we want you to have your power and we just don't want you to do it with nukes. We'll help you come up with…" what kind of passage is that from an intelligence estimate?"


:bush323:

:rush2:

It's funny, a month ago, half the posters here were claiming Norman Podhoretz was the devil himself, now they are silent about him.

It's funny, a month ago, half the posters here were claiming Norman Podhoretz was the devil himself, now they are silent about him.

................ for the moment.

Whoever came out with that report is the hero of the world