The NIE Report

Since we are approaching November elections I will probably start having more political post.

And since we are talking politics, I have to address the recently "leaked" NIE report and the conclusions that are being reported by the report. I would challenge anyone to try and not say that the reporting of this five month old report is anything but political.

If you listen only to the main stream media you would be led to believe that the only conclusion that this report had was that the war in Iraq is being used by terrorists as a means of recruiting. I'm not so sure why everyone is shocked by this statement but does it mean we don't need to be fighting the war, I don't think so. I actually think it confirms more the reason to continue with the fight.

Also, what isn't being reported is other statements in the NIE report like "United States led counterterrorism efforts have seriously damaged the leadership of al-Qaida and disrupted its operations.

The NIE report outlines a series of successes and failures in the war on terrorism but all you hear about are the failures.

Also, the main stream media can't have it both ways. The 2002 NIE report stated "Baghdad has chemical and biological weapons as well as missiles with ranges in excess of UN restrictions; if left unchecked, it probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade."

So, we wrong to make decisions based on the NIE report in 2002 but now in 2006 it is clear that this report has a clear understanding of the situation.

You can read report after report, analysis after analysis but in the end the only thing that matters is results. And to me, the most important result is that since 2001 there has not been a successful terrorists attack against the United States. But, prior we saw act of terrorism after another, including the bombing of the World Trade Center, the destruction of US embassies in Africa and the attack on the US Cole.