Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)
"Iran is not going to make it easy for us, but our goal of regional stability does demand some new approaches to coping with the enduring challenge of Iran, which is, and always has been, more than its nuclear ambitions."After an initial period of glee that the new NIE would force a less bellicose U.S. policy, the current thinking in the scholarly and public policy worlds is more sober about the implications of the new NIE judgments. The nonproliferation community is worried that the estimate will complicate efforts to toughen sanctions and give the Iranians a reprieve on compliance, possibly of long duration. Many who have tracked intelligence reform are chagrined at the crafting of the unclassified judgments, and worry that advocates of reform are more focused on internal practices than the quality of intelligence output. …
What is really needed is not the endless dissection of intelligence analysis, but a braver policy approach toward Iran. The administration has offered many different initiatives that do not fit together into a coherent strategy. Access the full article>>
