Current Article

Intelligence community learned from Iraq debacle

By Mel Goodman on December 6, 2007 at 7:37 PM in Intelligence, Iran, Iraq, Nuclear weapons

By Melvin A. Goodman

December 6 2007 :: Published today in the Baltimore Sun

U.S intelligence agencies have concluded in a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in fall 2003 and that Tehran is now “less determined to develop nuclear weapons.” The new findings will make it more difficult for the Bush administration to gain domestic and international support for the use of military force against Iran. The findings also will complicate efforts to arrange a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran and could open the door to a policy of diplomatic engagement.

The complete article can be viewed at the Baltimore Sun.

Melvin A. Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, was a senior intelligence analyst at the CIA from 1966 to 1990. His e-mail is goody789@comcast.net.

http://thumbsnap.com/v/78mn2yFc.jpg 1Watt

Sounds good, now if the new attorney general would just open a RICO investigation into the neocon’s role in fostering this debacle & treason for destroying Brewster-Jennings.
http://badthingshappen.blogspot.com TC

Ooh, frist. Don’t know if Larry or some of the other intelligence professionals saw this, but Steve Clemons notes that it seems ridiculously inconsistent for Move On to be hammered by everyone for rather insensitively criticizing Gen. Petraeus but yet John Bolton can slander the entire intelligence community and it’s OK?

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/002565.php

http://www.food4humanity.org HoosierHoops

TC..
It’s called spin..just like after the report on Iran Bush comes out and says i told you so..WHAT?
Become they stopped development they are more dangerous because they can start it…WHAT?
it’s like saying you are a compassionate conservative and hating most of america..
Some people buy the GOP shit cycle but I don’t…
mudkitty

Excellent point! This point needs to be reiterated…and hopefully become a “tipping” point.

http://thumbsnap.com/v/78mn2yFc.jpg 1Watt

Here’s a whole lot of anti-spin:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/06/countdown-special-comment-the-nie-reflects-an-unhinged-irrational-chicken-little-of-a-president/

http://www.food4humanity.org HoosierHoops

great link 1 watt..
BTW: become = because in my previous link..
Spellcheck /on
Idiotcheck /off
wethornet

kudos 1watt.

all. the link is to a keith olberman commentary. keith makes some excellent points. recommended.

(and thank goodness for crooksandliars.com. i would imagine a very significant % of folks here now that website. for the few who don’t…. they run video from the msm that is just priceless. it is one thing to read about it. it is way more powerful to see it. the tone of voice. the body language. it’s a must stop for me.)

http://OUTRAGEDBUTNOTSURPRISED bama_barrron

no doubt mr. goodman makes a well intentioned and rational argument but i fear his optimism may be naive. in today’s news we learn ms. rice supposedly has obtained backing from the french and germany to push for more sanctions. other efforts are progressing as well … it is like no matter what the facts are, no matter what iran does to try to ease the tension; this adminstration will continue to push and prod to ratchet up the tension and find any excuse to use military force.

as for me, i firmly believe the only way we can stop this group of neocons is to cut the head off … we must and i repeat must start impeachment proceedings as soon as possible, if not, this group will certainly start another war.
graywolf

So this guy is another Ph.D who couldn’t get a job in the real world so he winds up pushing his leftwing agenda at the CIA – under the guise of “analysis.”

The intelligence establishment, along with their fat-assed brethren at the State Department – have long forgotten who they work for. They are NOT the government, no matter how much they subvert the policy of the elected officials – in between their coffee breaks and leaking national secrets to their cohorts in the hate-America media.

The biggest mistake Bush made was not Iraq.
It was not cleaning out the worthless left-wing, globalist incompetents who infest the bureaucracy; selling out this country on their way to a fat pension paid for by me and other people who have actual jobs.

Teaeopy

Oh those execrable leaks! One would never emanate from the White House, would it. Never a fact, true or false, would they leak, and never a name, if we can believe their assurances.

We might all agree that under President George W. Bush federal bureaucracy has reached a new level. Shall we play Name That Level?
ybnormal

Do you mean worthless Left-Wing, globalist incompetents like Cheney, Libby and Rove who infest the bureaucracy; selling out this country?
Jess Wonderin

You make no sense – Bush has “hired’ the largest number of incompetent cronies and created the LARGEST “government” (and should I dare say deficit?) in HISTORY . . . but you’ve never been one to let a fact or two interrupt a good rant . . .

and are you feeling any “safer” with the BILLIONS HLS has squandered? I know I sleep better at night knowing we lost 1 Billion in Iraqi Police Equipment and 9 billion in CASH in Iraq . . . none of those damn petty government accountants billing us taxpayers overtime!!!!
Yogi-one

An actual job? You mean like being a hired troll?

mudkitty

Agree. But he’s not living up to his title, and he’s not earning his money.
graywolf

An actual job is NOT government, academia or media.

These are all jobs that provide nothing, create no economic value.

Those who can, do.
Those who can’t, teach.
Those who can’t teach, write about it.
Those who can’t write about it, hide out in the government.

mudkitty

And those who can’t come up with an original quote rely on cliches, Graypup.

graywolf

I never claimed to be creative.
I leave that to others.
I’ll stick with succinct.

TeakwoodKite

So the fact that those signed up For PNAC and then leaked classified info doesn’t count for you? And the fact that the revolving door of sexually repressed Republicans getting jobs with the same contrating whores that are ripping you off doesn’t bother you? Are you incapable of stating your position with out emotional BS? The same way you are irrational when describing “worthless left-wing, globalist incompetents” ….Go read Confessions of an Economic Hitman. He was not a left wing globilist. I always wonder what it will take for a human being as yourself to understand it is not left or right.

graywolf

Compared to most of the writers here, my “emotional BS” is pretty trivial.

This blog has a large number of serious passive/aggressive hand-wringing chicken littles.

TeakwoodKite

my “emotional BS” is pretty trivial.

Calling people “america-haters” is not a trival thing. From what I can tell, a fair number of people who venture to this blog have served this country or have loved ones who are serving now. Are those the “serious passive/aggressive hand-wringing chicken littles” you call America haters? Are the people who lost friends and loved one on 911 “america-haters”? And if they had a different point of view about the death of innocence and agony of loss than you, would call them “haters”? I don’t have to agree or disagree with anybody. Thats america …isn’t it? Again I ask you a direct question.

What it will take for a human being as yourself to understand it is not left or right?
mudkitty

So why bother pretty little self by coming here at all?

mudkitty

Well, we know for certain that you Greyembryo, never bothered to work toward a PHD in anything. Are you still working on that thesis on bitter contempt?

Why don’t you ever answer a direct question? (Typical rightwingnut.) That question is: If you have so much contempt for the ideas that most of us express here, why come here at all?

graywolf

I come here, from time to time, for entertainment.

At first, I was looking for serious difference of opinions, but ran into lots of anger, tantrum-throwing and vitriol.
ANY disagreement with the prevailing view is met with name-calling and insults.
Like most “true believers” you only drink kool- aid.
So, I joined in. I just inject my insults from a different direction.

Most blogs (both right-wing and left-wing ones I have viewed) are at the lowest common denonimator of scream.
The most mature discussions seem to be the conservative (center-right) ones, such as Powerline or TCS.

mudkitty

So you come here to get your kicks? You are entertained by people that you disrespect?

graywolf

I’m easy to please.

I do find people entertaining who think they’ve invented the wheel, but only discovered the flat-tire.

I heard most of these arguments – with many of the same lame putdowns – back in the 70′s.

The left will never be burdened by a surplus of original thoughts.

ybnormal

Every so often there’s good news.
“more difficult ….. for the use of military force against Iran”

Also, here’s a very interesting read; an inner look of the hows and whys behind this NIE; from the view of Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus at the Washington Post:
—
Lessons of Iraq Aided Intelligence On Iran -
- Officials Cite New Caution And a Surge in Spying

McConnell required agencies to consult more sources ….. and to acknowledge, to a degree previously unheard of, what they do not know.

” ‘Do not know’ is a new technical term for an NIE,” said a senior official…

The rest of the article gives the sense that McConnell is really genuinely trying to make IEs better.

The IE itself says in it’s own self-explanatory section:
“The NIC has undertaken a number of steps to improve the NIE process”
and
“We have made a concerted effort to not only highlight differences among agencies but to explain the reasons for such differences and to prominently display them in the Key Judgments.”

And of course as we’ve heard, it says “…but we do not know whether it [Iran] currently intends to develop nuclear weapons”

At the end on page 9 there’s a handy chart comparing it with the May 2005 assessment.

We may not all be of the same opinions as McConnell, but he does seem to be trying to bring back some integrity.
justsomeone

I’d like to expand a bit on my previous position stated in the thread “Get Ready for Rightwing Blowback”, that being my belief that we’re a debtor nation & financially can’t afford to fight on a third front. As I said previously much of our debt is owed to China, China gets much of its oil from Iran. China may tolerate a tactical air strike of Iran’s alledged nuclear facility, however I do not believe they would tolerate any action that would disrupt the oil supply. I guess I just don’t see it happening, it has the propensity for getting completely out of control. The MSM has been doing more man on the street stories from Iran, showing average Iranians in a sympathic light, doesn’t this signal anything to you?

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

Third war front? Actually a 4th war front, if you count the barely below-the-radar war the Bush administration is waging on all of America through their domestic spy program[s].
Cee

Get Ready for Rightwing Blowback”, that being my belief that we’re a debtor nation & financially can’t afford to fight on a third front.

This is not a consideration of fanatic Zionists or Christian fundamentalists. Don’t forget that.

Ron England

What they learned was to never let the Bush administration fuck with their analysis results.
justsomeone

Graywolf, I’ve got a shocker for ya: POTUS is a globalist.

http://thumbsnap.com/v/78mn2yFc.jpg 1Watt

and I’ve got a word to you, POTUS doesn’t have the slightest clue beyond the rug in the Oval Office, Didn’t know that there were more then one sect of Muslims, didn’t know that there were black people in Brazil, doesn’t know the difference from Al Queda and and Taliban oh hell the list is endless.

Shirin

Oh hell, he STILL doesn’t know that there are more that TWO sects of Muslims.

But then how many Americans know that?

ybnormal

Actually, most Americans don’t know there’s more than 2 Dozen denominations of Baptists, let alone 2 sects of Muslims.
TeakwoodKite

More than you’d think Shirin…and the reason for learning the difference, is what I find odd.Knowledge can be intrusive.

mudkitty

Yeah, but he’s still a globalist…along with his entire family. Never forget…The Bush’s are a family. Family Values.

graywolf

I am NOT, repeat NOT a Bush-fan.
This administration will, probably, go down as one of the most f***ed-up in history.

However, there is a line of conduct that respects the office and doesn’t root against my own country in time of war.

Bush isn’t at war; America is.

Shirin

“Respect the office”? That notion never has made any more rational sense than “respect the potato”. We respect people, not things, and we should respect people because they earn our respect, not because they hold a particular position. The respectability of the office depends entirely on the respectability of the person who occupies it.

And I really thought we had all moved beyond that “my country right or wrong” rubbish, but I guess not.

Oh yes – and indeed it IS Bush and his regime, not “America” that is “at war”. The majority of Americans were duped into supporting the aggression against Iraq, and now that the majority understands they were duped, they no longer support it.

graywolf

And this comment, my friend, will get you a nice
comfy job in the State Department or maybe the CIA – surrounded by other people who think that “national interest” is an obsolete concept….. if it ever was valid.

Shirin

Well, you certainly did an excellent job of missing my point!

graywolf

You said:
“And I really thought we had all moved beyond that “my country right or wrong” rubbish, but I guess not.”

I answered this.

Shirin

I see. So to you “my country right or wrong” equates with national interest.

Ah, the logic of blind patriotism!

graywolf

What’s the other side of “my country, right or wrong”?

Moral equivalence?

We have nukes, so it’s only fair that anyone else – flagrant nut jobs included -can posses the power to blow up alarge part of the world?

Shirin

Stick to the subject please. We were talking about the “my country right or wrong” principle, not who gets to have nukes.

Shirin

You know, this comment by Graywolf reminds me of a colleague of mine in 2002-2003 who was absolutely opposed to attacking Iraq. One day she told me that of course attacking Iraq would be completely wrong, and she would oppose it in every way she was able, but if Bush did invade, then she would support it. So, what she was telling me was that until the moment the attack took place it was dead wrong, but once Bush attacked, it would suddenly be right.

Ah! The logic of blind patriotism!

TeakwoodKite

Shock and awe…pitueee.. it gets back to that unfortunate use of the phrase “rooting for” in the context of “war”.

TeakwoodKite

However, there is a line of conduct that respects the office and doesn’t root against my own country in time of war.

Bush isn’t at war; America is.

Graywolf: We agree. It is the Office not the person;However…

OK… Questiion 1) If you had to choose respect for the Constitution of the United States or the Oval Office which would you choose?

Question 2) What actions / statements do view as “rooting” against ‘my’ (our) country?

Qustion 3) If we are at war, then please tell me with who? I ask this because it getting really hard to tell.
wethornet

However, there is a line of conduct that respects the office and doesn’t root against my own country in time of war.
>>>i root for my country, it’s why i despise bush. (and btw, he is a globalist;are you up in arms over the upcoming n.a.u? north amer. union.)

Bush isn’t at war; America is.
>>>bush most definitely is at war. with the constitution. and all that made/makes america great.
…
…
iraq had nothing to do with 911. we are committing a nice little genocide over there.
mudkitty

Sorry, but this is what’s called a private war, puppy.

http://thumbsnap.com/v/78mn2yFc.jpg 1Watt

The biggest mistake Bush made was not Iraq.
It was not cleaning out the worthless left-wing, globalist incompetents who infest the bureaucracy; selling out this country on their way to a fat pension paid for by me and other people who have actual jobs.

That’s why they put all of those 20 year old experts in there to rebuild Iraq. All those 20 year old lawyers from a 400th ranked religious school to staff the Justice Dept.. oh hell the list is almost a endless as the igit in chief is clueless.
justsomeone

1Watt, I take it you think GLOBALIST is a compliment. To me it’s rubber stamping the multi national corps’ agenda of exploiting the enviornment & labor markets & has zip to do with being well traveled, educated, tolerant or anything of a positive nature. Globalism aspires to erase the concept of nation states & soverignity & replace those alligances with a desperate mobile pursuit of chump change for the masses & great wealth for the over lords. i.e. your neighbor might not be able to find a damn job & gettin ready to live under some bridge, but who cares cause youre gettin rich providing sweat shop employment for some impoverished class of people thousands of miles away. It’s a WalMart mind set, it’s toxic pet food, deforrestation, & screwing the middle class. To use a POTUS term, we’re being “regularized.” Hell, what do I know? Maybe one person’s adversion to being regularized is another persons Dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

wethornet

justsomeone, i won’t speak for 1watt. i believe you misread his remarks. the first paragraph about globalists in 1watt’s post was written by graywolf upblog.

the way i read it 1watt quoted it. and then rebutted it.

…
2 options to avoid this problem. one is to do a bquote, (block quote) on what we cut and paste. the other it to italicize one or the other.
wethornet

ps. concur with your comments about being a globalist. for me it is a serious slur.

Cee

They never quit. People who opposed them to speak out on behalf of the US need to guard their backs.

CNN is going to run a neocon propaganda piece tonight called Iran: Fact or Ficton hosted by Campbell Brown. Isn’t she Dan Senor’s wife?
Kathleen

The intelligence community learned from the Iraq debacle (1 million Iraqi people dead, 4 million refugees, 4000 dead Americans 40,ooo injured). Clearly the Bush administration has not.

Sy Hersh told Wolf Blitzer “It’s not over yet, there is still Israel” they are very angry about this
report and may pre-emptively attack Iran.

Sy Hersh with Wolf
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/05/sy-hersh-we-pay-bush-to-know-these-things-what-did-he-know-when/

Israel may pre-meptively attack their “existential” threat

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12014

December 7, 2007
Iran: Why Won’t We Take Yes For An Answer?
Israel’s amen corner tries to spin the NIE report

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12014

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/israel-warns-iran-to-cooperate-or-pay-price/2007/12/06/1196812921134.html

Shirin

Using the correct word really matters, and I wish people would stop misusing the word preemptive. In order for an attack to be preemptive there must be a clear and imminent threat. Absent that the attack is aggression, not preemption.

Preemptive attacks may in a small number of cases be justified as self-defense. Aggression is never justified.
G Hazeltine

From:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/israel-warns-iran-to-cooperate-or-pay-price/2007/12/06/1196812921134.html“Israel warns Iran to co-operate or pay price

ISRAEL has warned Iran to either co-operate with the West over its uranium enrichment program or face military action.

Ron Prosor, Israel’s newly appointed ambassador to Britain and one of his country’s leading experts on Iran’s nuclear program, said that Tehran could enrich enough uranium to make an atomic bomb by 2009.

“At the current rate of progress, Iran will reach the technical threshold for producing fissile material by 2009,” he said.

“This is a global threat and it requires a global response.

“It should be made clear that if Iran does not co-operate, then military confrontation is inevitable. It is either co-operation or confrontation.”

Pay the price? Confrontation? Face military action? Again:

Denmark — Population: 5,468,120 — Area: 43,094 sq km

Israel — Population: 5,700,000* — Area: 20,770 sq km**

San Francisco Bay Area (7 counties) — Population: 7,200,000 — Area: 4,160 sq km

Iran – Population: 65,397,521 — Area: 1,648,000 sq km

*excluding Arab citizens andPalestinians
**excluding the Palestinian Territories

Is something out of proporton here?

Cee

This gave me a good laugh. They had to scrap this to replace it with the crap I mentioned above.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/06/cnn-postpones-docum... /

CNN ‘postpones’ documentary on ‘Iran Goes Nuclear.’

Variety reports:

The latest National Intelligence Estimate concluding that Iran discontinued its nuclear weapons program four years ago has claimed one casualty: CNN has postponed speculative documentary “We Were Warned — Iran Goes Nuclear.”

The two-hour spec, which was slated for Dec. 12 under the “CNN Presents” banner, was “set partially in the future,” featuring a what-if scenario as former government officials — playing fictional cabinet members — debate how to deal with the Iranian threat.

That special was “based on a different set of rules and a different set of conditions,” said CNN veep-senior exec producer Mark Nelson, noting that the surprising NIE report “changed everything.”

reggie

And CNN has that raver Bolton on constantly, and never Ray McGovern, when the issue is intelligence?

CNN is a joke of a news station.

http://OUTRAGEDBUTNOTSURPRISED bama_barrron

news come this morning that condelezza, the old cold war warrior herself, is meeting with the russians to get their cooperation with continuing the pressure against iran. well, it aint gonna happen … bush can jump up and down, rant and rave, and hold his breath until he turns the red but the russians and the chinese are going to tell him to go to hell. rightly so! yes the blowback is quickly becoming sublime and ridiculous.
http://www.petgazette-pets.com OleHippieChick

Headline: CIA destroys torture tapes.

Payback for the “bad” NIE?
And Yet…

Col. Lang just posted some DC insider info on why BushCo had to release the NIE conclusions:

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2007/12/the-senate-and.html

wethornet

and yet, thanks for the link to col. pat lang, us army, ret.

i am posting it in a block quote because it is that important. the top half is pat quoting a wash compost article. the bottom half is his thoughts.

The Senate and the Iran NIE
“Senate Republicans are planning to call for a congressional commission to investigate the conclusions of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran as well as the specific intelligence that went into it, according to congressional sources.

The move is the first official challenge, but it comes amid growing backlash from conservatives and neoconservatives unhappy about the assessment that Iran halted a clandestine nuclear weapons program four years ago. It reflects how quickly the NIE has become politicized, with critics even going after the analysts who wrote it, and shows a split among Republicans.” Wright and Kessler in the WaPo

———————————————————————–

The “jungle telegraph” in Washington is booming with news of the Iran NIE. I am told that the reason the conclusions of the NIE were released is that it was communicated to the White House that “intelligence career seniors were lined up to go to jail if necessary” if the document’s gist were not given to the public. Translation? Someone in that group would have gone to the media “on the record” to disclose its contents.

It is no wonder that the AEI crowd and their congressional helpmates are running around with their hair on fire over this estimate. In sharp contrast to the ease with which the neocon Jacobins were able to control the content of the October 2002 NIE on Iraq, this time they failed utterly to use a national intelligence estimate as a propaganda tool.

Hearings? Good! Let there be hearings! Let there be many hearings! The more the better and let them be public hearings. Bring them on!. pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/06/AR2007120602457.html

wethornet

i especially love pat’s comments about hearings. in the words of the decider, “bring ‘em on.”

that simply will not happen. ok, that’s a prediction.

here’s why. if you bring lt. col. karen kwiatowski, u.s.a.f., ret. to testify it will be ugly. she worked in little dougie feith’s house of horrors where the did an enron on the intel.

bring col. sam gardiner, usaf, ret, who chronicled in real time 50 lies they were peddling.

i have talked with staffers and two congressmen on the relevant committees, most have no idea who the above two are. it is disgusting.

as i mentioned in another post, how many times did cheney, libby, perle and gingrich visit the cia?

i PRAY we have hearings. and real ones too.

etc, etc.
Cee

God bless them. More of us should be prepared to go to jail with them if the lies continue.

mudkitty

The one, and only, reason they released the report is because they KNEW it would be leaked anyway.
Philip Henika

These times in which diplomacy is recommended re: Iran may provide the opportunity for a nonpartisan global peacebuilding initiative i.e. such an initiative, probably in the form of UN Resolution, would factor in the health, prosperity and happiness of the ‘global citizen’. It would be refreshing to hear a set of goals for the 21st Century which could collectively include the end of war and its costs to humanity; the end of disease and pollution; efficient use of energy and adaptation to climate change amongst others. In other words, let us reinforce the concept that nations can work together on global issues. If the President of Iran claims he is a “man of the people” then a global peacebuilding initiative would ask – ‘Mr. President – just exactly what are you doing with re; to the health, prosperity and happiness of the Iranian People? If a UN Resolution were in place, a global peacebuilding initiative would prompt global leaders with the same question – a question asked in spite of the perception of liberal, conservative, sane or fanatical.
mudkitty

Not with rhetoric like Bush’s WW3 example.
Sometime-CIA-Defender

Col. Lang reported:

The “jungle telegraph” in Washington is booming with news of the Iran NIE. I am told that the reason the conclusions of the NIE were released is that it was communicated to the White House that “intelligence career seniors were lined up to go to jail if necessary” if the document’s gist were not given to the public. Translation? Someone in that group would have gone to the media “on the record” to disclose its contents.

‘Intelligence career seniors’, whoever you are, you are my heroes. We have been waiting for someone with the courage to step up and speak the truth (that is before retiring and writing a book, while the truth can still help prevent disaster) and here you are doing it when it’s not just your job on the line, but potentially your liberty. We owe you a great debt. God bless.
Mr.Murder

Sanctions are still in place.

Their aim is to instill regime change.

This props up the Sauds and their world influence, with their longstanding closeness to James Baker.

This continues client status for Israel, Iran’s biggest potential military opponent at this time.

They drafted a Chapter 7 resolution of the United Nations Security Council calling for the disarmament of Iraq and saying in Paragraph 14 that if Iraq complies, sanctions will be lifted. Within months of this resolution being passed–and the United States drafted and voted in favor of this resolution–within months, the President, George Herbert Walker Bush, and his Secretary of State, James Baker, are saying publicly, not privately, publicly that even if Iraq complies with its obligation to disarm, economic sanctions will be maintained until which time Saddam Hussein is removed from power.

That is proof positive that disarmament was only useful insofar as it contained through the maintenance of sanctions and facilitated regime change. It was never about disarmament, it was never about getting rid of weapons of mass destruction. It started with George Herbert Walker Bush, and it was a policy continued through eight years of the Clinton presidency, and then brought us to this current disastrous course of action under the current Bush Administration

Baker set the future policy under Bush Sr. He’s tight with the House of Saud as their counsel vs. 9-11 survivors.

The West fears their bailing out of the world market to go eastward or shifting what it is they have bought into on the West.

Iran’s a block from them going east entirely. It has location and resource advantages past the peak of Arabian oil. We could probably call Arabia’s bluff on the market, there’s two sides to every business transaction.

Go ahead, turn your back on the West, watch radicals overtake your own homeland, watch others outmaneuver your market entry eastward.

For that reason they run parallel to Israel and its interests. Israel wants to be the doorway to the Mediterranean from the Mid East still. The Trans Arabian and Trans Iraqi pipelines flow through Southern Lebanon, land Israel has eyes for.

It’s still about money and oil strategically. Tactically it’s about water, but that is another topic.

We could give Iran recognition, place the region into favored trade status, and ease oil concerns internationally. The price benefit on oil alone would fuel an economic boom.

Expanding markets would accelerate transition economies to scale levels. Diplomatic demands could meet benchmarks to go with increased demand for expanded services in building infrastructure and helping NGO in offering aid.

Arabia would go along provided we channel much of the USAID moneys through their economic institutions. They need to get ahead of transitional phases in their own right.

Israel has the same need, to see moneys channeled through their institutions as a hedge against regional conflict, as both sides begin to share in the success of the future.

We could play a hard hand on Baker’s buddies(forfeiture on scale numbers for class action to survivors of the day used to justify all of our current wars). It would basically be a shot across the bow, or they can go along with us, profit along the lines of drawing interest and sharing in the development of neighbors.

Israel can get closer to their enemies by empowering buffer zones in neutral or non-declared neighbors. They can’t build walls against the rest of the world forever.

If walls worked Jericho would still be standing. Why have we not learned this? Perhaps a package of incentives could help them realize what works best for everyone’s strategic interests. Sweeten the song with some extra money and bring those walls down.