Maybe Israel should read the newspapers
Dear Israeli government,
It’s all very well taking a strong stance against Iran developing nuclear weapons, but sometimes you have to appreciate that it sounds a little futile. America’s National Intelligence Assessment concluded that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons, only for President Bush to insist that Iran is still a major threat and today you are following suit and threatening military action again.
My concern is that there does not appear to be any scenario which might avoid military action if your current thinking is pursued to its logical conclusion. If America’s intelligence services are fairly certain Iran is not a threat but you still threaten them with force if they do not ‘cooperate’, I see little chance of them escaping a serious bombing campaign at some point in the future. How is ‘cooperation’ defined? Does that mean doing everything you and America ask without exception (which seems fairly ludicrous)? Invading Iraq when the evidence clearly stated that they were not a major threat to world peace had tragic consequences, and now the evidence clearly suggests that Iran is not a threat – perhaps we should try to learn from our past mistakes.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
Witanagemot Blogs
If I had to place bets on whose Middle East intelligence was the more reliable, my money would go on Israel’s. I think Israel has got it right and the USA has got it wrong about Iran, although I fully appreciate that this is the opposite of what people WANT to believe. The Israelis actually advised AGAINST invading Iraq (so much for the “Israel lobby”), arguing at the time that IRAN was the real threat in the region. Of course, they were right then and they are right now.
I would be fascinated to see whether any future intelligence from Israel or elsewhere conflict with America’s recent report. Even if it does, I’m sure the cynicism over intelligence documents (remember the debacle over Iraq) will remain.