And you America doubters-in-chief thought it would stop the drumbeat to war.

Watch as Bush explains it all, nice and slow for all the haters in the house:

I think the NIE makes it clear that Iran needs to be taken seriously as a threat to peace.

[…] I believed before the NIE that Iran was dangerous and I believe after the NIE that Iran is dangerous.

And I have said Iran is dangerous. And the NIE doesn’t do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world. Quite the contrary.

How could it be read any other way?

This will probably be another desultory post of mine, but three stories I read today seem worth talking about. The first is from the WaPo in which War Criminal and “statesman” of the First Iraq dribbles these little pearls of wisdom. I can’t believe he’s not dead yet:

He said Kissinger, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, has been telling Bush and Cheney that “in Iraq, he declared very simply, ’Victory is the only meaningful exit strategy.’”  Read more 

It would be irresponsible not to speculate. If Bush’s past behavior on warrantless surveillance is any guide, he’s trying to hide domestic operations by keeping most of the NIE secret. By now, we know the playbook. On warrantless surveillance, first we were told that the program targetted only furriners by court order, but in fact the program targetted everyone including Aunt Molly, without warrants, and terra was just an excuse. I just don’t think Glenn Greenwald is cynical enough:

UPDATE: It really is odd and disturbing, as well as potentially quite dangerous, that the declassified NIE on the “Trends on Global Terrorism” focuses exclusively on Islamic terrorists — except for the last section which conspicuously identifies “leftist” groups which use the Internet as a serious terrorist threat (h/t Sysprog). Odder still, it makes no mention at all of right-wing, anti-government movements (such as, say, the one that spawned Timothy McVeigh, an actual terrorist).

Um, what’s “odd” about any of this?  Read more