Why The Iran NIE Was Released

Liberals amuse me, they ask question like "why was the NIE released" and miss the bigger picture.

Here's why I think it was released:

The Iranian mullahs saw what happened to Saddam Hussein in 2003. They saw the US invade and take over Baghdad in weeks forcing him to flee eventually to be extricated from a spider hole in the ground full of fleas. They saw his lies and murderous regime dissected in open court and they saw him hanged while Shiites cheered. They also looked over their shoulder and saw that we have a strong military presence in Afghanistan and saw that Mullah Omar also was ousted. In other words, we had them surrounded and they knew it.

It makes complete sense that they chose the route of stopping production of nuclear weapons, in spite of their great push for supremacy in the Persian Gulf region. They had two options: continue to increase their nuclear capabilities or cease such activities and attack us in other ways such as backing Shiite militias in the insurgency in Iraq. They opted for number two.

The Bush administration did what you are supposed to do with intelligence, use it to push forward American aims and goals. We knew Iran ceased production but didn't let them know we knew. We had a trump card that could be used to stop them from attacking our forces and we used it. It apparently worked and Bush deserves credit for that. Perhaps some backdoor diplomacy was at play here, perhaps the State Dept. or other agency said to the Mullahs "listen, stop supplying the Mahdi Army and other groups, let us continue moving Iraq forward and we'll come out and take you off the hook for the nuke thing." The Iranian leadership would have been idiots to not agree as they are first and foremost businessmen, they need to sell oil to prop up an economy that by all accounts is in turmoil. Once the economy goes south, they will have students protesting on a daily basis and they'll be replaced. Simple survival instinct kicks in.

The very bright Kevin Drum seems perplexed by this as do most libs I'd suspect.

The not-so-bright Taylor Marsh calls this "embarrassing" to the Bush administration. Far from it, this was released by the Bush administration but Marsh in her never-ending hatred of the President is too thick to see it. That's why I hope these people never again hold power.

This shows explicitly how intelligence is supposed to be used. In concert with the threat of force, they strong-armed the Iranians into compliance. Libs never have understood the threat of force in foreign relations. If a nation is surrounded on two sides by a united coalition that routed the militaries of both neighbors, the light bulb should eventually come on and it did in Iran's case.

The left can spin this all they want but in doing so show just how ill-informed they are and just how inane it would be to entrust them with running the War on Terror.