by Anthony Tsontakis
Download the Full Article: The Prospect for a Unified International Policy on Iran
Evidence made public over the course of the last year compellingly supports the conclusion that Iran's nuclear program is not peaceful, contrary to every maxim of Iran's stated policy, including a religious decree by Iran's Supreme Leader that says Islam forbids the production and use of nuclear weapons. As a result, and because confidence in the good faith and ultimate justice of the Iranian government yields, as it must, to the painful experience of endless disappointment, a consensus against Iran's nuclear activity has been emerging internationally.
Download the Full Article: The Prospect for a Unified International Policy on Iran
Anthony Tsontakis is a small business owner based in Phoenix, Arizona. He recently earned a J.D. from the Phoenix School of Law, where he served as Managing Editor for the Phoenix Law Review. Mr. Tsontakis previously served as a law clerk for the Arizona Department of Homeland Security, the Arizona State Legislature, and the Arizona Secretary of State.
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"By gnawing through a dike, even a rat might drown a nation." - Edmund Burke
Good treatment of a pressing issue. If the purpose of the Persian program is not "peaceful," then we might want to think about preparing for the worst. Surely Israel is doing just that. For Tel Aviv, the danger is existential.
And if Tony is correct about the consensus on the Iran nuclear program, why isn't that consensus reflected in a new NIE. Am I to believe that SWJ is ahead of the Intel Community on this issue? Or is Intelligence at the national level playing politics again with assessments as they did with the 2002 Iraq NIE?
I suspect that any new judgments on Iran are being withheld, officially, because once that cat is out, we might be expected to do something. Unfortunately, as another post in this forum notes, we are stretched so thin now that any new contingency might be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back.
Were I a Sunni terror strategist or a Shia nuclear aficionado, I would see the the next few years as an unprecedented window of opportunity. Not only do we have a foot stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have neither the capability nor the political inclination to open another front in the Levant. And what's the plan if Israel makes the opening gambit in that theater?
The enemy, whose name we dare not speak, may not be monolithic or have a master plan, but they have us hamstrung nonetheless. Whether by design or accident, "they" have at once circumscribed our options and lowered the nuclear threshold.
Pretty short on evidence to support your broad-based allegations, Mr. Tsontakis.
And why no mention of the 2007 NIE and lack of follow up disputing those results, which by consensus of US IC agencies state that it is likely Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program?
Finally, as far as international consensus goes, are you ignorant of the fact that the 118-nation Non Aligned Movement (NAM) supports Iran's nuclear power program?
Or should significant shortcomings be dismissed out of hand, as they were in the case of Iraq and the imaginary WMDs? Do you think we should spend another $1 trillion dollars (of borrowed money) for another war of choice based on hubris and a sense of adventure?