Iran’s insistence that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only is roundly rejected by Western officials and, in internal reports, by international nuclear inspectors. Yet Washington’s assessments of how much progress Iran has made toward a weapon have varied greatly over the past two years, partly a reflection of how little is known about the inner workings of the country’s nuclear programs.
Mr. Obama’s top advisers say they no longer believe the key finding of a much disputed National Intelligence Estimate about Iran, published a year before President George W. Bush left office, which said that Iranian scientists ended all work on designing a nuclear warhead in late 2003.
I guess somebody in the administration actually read the NIE. That simple act, since just reading the NIE public summary made it clear that the NIE did not, in fact, clear Iran, has changed the conventional wisdom. After all, the press will sooner put their old analysis down the drain before they challenge the Obama administration's take on the issue!
We're making progress, at least, in facing the problem. Perhaps we'll actually do something to stop Iran. Or maybe we'll get really lucky and the Iranians will boot out their thug regime.
