RUSH: The Democrat reaction to the NIE was predictable, as it always will be predictable. We have a montage here of Dingy Harry, Joe Biden, Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Jay Rockefeller.
REID: I would be very surprised if, when this report came out yesterday and was made public, that the president didn’t already know all about it.
BIDEN: The president raised the specter of World War III with Iran because, as he said, its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, months after he had been told by our intelligence community it’s likely that Iran had halted its weapons program.
EMANUEL: This report is a game changer. Okay?
HILLARY: I vehemently disagree with the president that nothing’s change and, therefore, nothing in American policy has to change. I have, for two years, advocated diplomatic engagement with Iran, and I think that’s what the president should do.
OBAMA: They should have stopped the saber rattling, shouldn’t have never [sic] started it, and they need now to aggressively move on the diplomatic front.
ROCKEFELLER: I have to believe that he knew what was going on. Why was he talking about a nuclear Holocaust? Why was he talking about all of those things?
RUSH: This is scary, folks. I mean, this is real-world scary. These people are making it up as they go along. All of a sudden, they believe the intelligence when it fits their paradigm, when it fits their worldview, when it fits their view of the political situation. Then, all of a sudden, the intelligence is infallible! Why, and not only that, the president knew this even while he was pounding the war drums — and Mrs. Clinton, of all people, suggesting that the president needs to actively engage in diplomacy. There are two ways to look at this. Either the intelligence is wrong, and Iran is still working feverishly toward their nuclear weapons program — which Ahmadinejad has always maintained they are doing! I guess he’s a liar. He’s just rattling sabers. We’re not going to trust what he says. Bush, however, we can’t trust either. If they have indeed stopped, then there is a reason for it, and it is not ‘diplomacy.’ It was Shock and Awe in Baghdad, if they have, indeed, stopped. This is a… It’s not exactly a win-win, but, if they’ve stopped, it is really, really good news. But we still don’t know this. This is an ‘estimate,’ and we know that the people that put this together… Well, we’re legitimately suspicious of their motives. The Democrats, however, couldn’t care less about the substance of the issue. This is all about discrediting Bush, making him out to be a liar and destroying his political party, his presidency, and so forth, because that’s all that matters to these people. Go to the phones, Frank in Philadelphia, I’m glad you waited, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, mega dittos, longtime listener.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Hey, these officials and the CIA, they think they’re preventing us from going to war with Iran, but by reducing this nuclear threat they’re actually pushing us closer to a military conflict. They’re limiting Bush’s diplomatic maneuvers and strengthening Iran, so it seems to me that, in the short term, we aren’t going to be able to pressure them with economic sanctions.
RUSH: Here’s the thing, here’s what I would say to Mrs. Clinton. You have a good point. But if, indeed, they have stopped, then what’s to talk about? What kind of diplomacy do we have? If they’ve stopped their nuclear program, their nuclear weapons program, then why do we need to have diplomacy here? Lift the sanctions. Everything’s fine now! We’ve been told by the NIE that the Iranians have no desire to have a nuclear weapons program. Lift the sanctions. What’s the point of diplomacy here with Mrs. Clinton and the rest of these clowns, ‘Well, we need to go the diplomacy route here.’ Why?
CALLER: But we know that’s not true, and, in fact, what’s going to happen is we’re going to run into a crisis and we’re going to make military confrontation inevitable and closer to reality than it was before this report came out.
RUSH: All right. Explain how that will happen, because one of the things that the experts are saying here is that if this report is ultimately accepted and verified, then, politically, it’s going to make a military strike against Iran unfeasible, or impossible, and you’re right, too.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: It’s going to be impossible to tighten sanctions.
CALLER: So China and Russia won’t let us do anything. So now Ahmadinejad can just go on his merry way, create his weapons, and before we know it, the weapons will be there, and we will be left with nothing to do but go in and try to take them out —
RUSH: Exactly right.
CALLER: — before he can use them against somebody else.
RUSH: Exactly right. We are deemed —
CALLER: And so now we’re left with nothing to do but confront him militarily.
RUSH: Exactly. We are dealing with an Islamist fanatic, who is very open about his fanaticism. He’s very open and honest about what his intentions are — and I’m going to tell you something, it’s not just people in the United States taking this seriously. You don’t think the United Arab Emirates and the Saudi Arabians, the Saudis, are upset about this? Iran has made it clear they intend to run that region, and the Emirates, you know, they don’t have a defense industry, and neither do the Saudis. The Iranians have a military. I mean, the Saudis have a military. It’s nothing to speak of, and the Emirates don’t have one at all. I guarantee you, they don’t want any part of a nuclear Iran, and they’re not buying any of this, and the French are kind of reluctant to buy into any of this. This is really, really, really hideous. This kind of… If this report, if this Key Judgment about Iran having stopped its program in 2003 is made up — if this is just somebody trying to influence US foreign policy for whatever their personal, political beliefs are, whether they’re anti-war, they’re anti-Bush, what have you, whether they’ve got some personal thing that they’re fighting that they feel rejected and were seeking revenge, whatever it is — this borders on treasonous.
This is not just backyard fun and games. We are not talking here about expanding Social Security or reworking Medicare or any of this sort of thing. This goes right to the heart of US national security. I’m not trying to scare anybody here, folks. I am trying to wake people up, and I am trying to just pound a little reality here. Because, even if they’ve stopped, I believe it’s only temporary, and especially now that they’ve gotten the imprimatur. Ahmadinejad is claiming victory. The Democrats in this country are saying, ‘See? See? There was never anything to be concerned about.’ The Russians and the Chinese… You know, Frank from Philadelphia is right. Every nuclear power has developed its nuclear weapons program in secrecy, under cover of darkness. Why are they building things underground? They’ve got all these centrifuges. They are enriching uranium. As I said yesterday, you don’t do this kind of stuff for traditional power needs in the cities and towns of Iran. So if we accept the fact — if we’re just going to be naïve little idiots and accept the fact — yeah, they’ve stopped, for whatever reason, and not continue to try to find out if they’re still working at it or reconstituting it at some point, you have to conclude they’re going to. That is… You know, the worst-case scenario has to be planned for. A nuclear Iran changes the whole stability, not just of the Middle East, but of the world.