Rejecting Reality

Our shrub has decided that mere facts shouldn't be enough to prevent a war with Iran. As he travels the middle east trying to push an Israeli-Palestinian "peace plan" by demonizing Iran (yeah, I have no idea how that works), he's now rejecting the NIE:

In public, President Bush has been careful to reassure Israel and other allies that he still sees Iran as a threat, while not disavowing his administration's recent National Intelligence Estimate. That NIE, made public Dec. 3, embarrassed the administration by concluding that Tehran had halted its weapons program in 2003, which seemed to undermine years of bellicose rhetoric from Bush and other senior officials about Iran's nuclear ambitions. But in private conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week, the president all but disowned the document, said a senior administration official who accompanied Bush on his six-nation trip to the Mideast. "He told the Israelis that he can't control what the intelligence community says, but that [the NIE's] conclusions don't reflect his own views" about Iran's nuclear-weapons program, said the official, who would discuss intelligence matters only on the condition of anonymity.

Bush's behind-the-scenes assurances may help to quiet a rising chorus of voices inside Israel's defense community that are calling for unilateral military action against Iran. Olmert, asked by NEWSWEEK after Bush's departure on Friday whether he felt reassured, replied: "I am very happy." A source close to the Israeli leader said Bush first briefed Olmert about the intelligence estimate a week before it was published, during talks in Washington that preceded the Annapolis peace conference in November. According to the source, who also refused to be named discussing the issue, Bush told Olmert he was uncomfortable with the findings and seemed almost apologetic. (bolds mine)

http://www.newsweek.com/id/91673

The whole confrontation with Iran is the worst possible idea that has come out of shrub's little mind. Given that both Russia and China have strong ties with Iran, and that the current American economy can't support another war, how the hell can shrub get away with this kind of bullshit?

I wish we could just lock him in a rubber room with a bunch of toy soldiers for the next year, and that we'll elect a sane president who will actually engage in diplomacy with Iran.