Another perhaps unintended consequence of the NIE report

Submitted by Marc Segan (United States), Dec 12, 2007 at 18:38

Absent some hidden cleverness behind the NIE or its release, here's one slightly beneficial consequence:

After the Iraq WMD intelligence embarrassment, it's been too easy for other countries to characterize and caricature the administration as aggressive, unilateral and generally cowboy-ish. But now, with the NIE, as the US seems to stand down, those others seem to be forced to make their own cases against the benignity of Iranian actions and intentions.

I don't like the NIE report and its apparent distortions and purpose. But maybe some sunlight will be shed on the matter as other countries are forced to make their real positions clearer. In the end, they seem always to count on the US cavalry to arrive -- to do the right thing whether or not they themselves help or even pose and protest. Now as they worry whether the US will really be there when needed, perhaps we're hearing some seriousness.

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