Fred Skeptical of New Intelligence Estimate

A new intelligence estimate was released today saying that Iran shut down their nuclear bomb program back in 2003 due to "international scrutiny and pressure". This is having some interesting spin right now--particularly by the Democrats who see this as a repudiation of Bush and his policies. (More about that below).

Fred said at a gun shop today that he is skeptical of this information:

"I hope that they are accurate with this assessment, but right now, I don't have the confidence in our own intelligence capabilities to make that assessment," the former Tennessee senator said after speaking to dozens of supporters at a gun shop in this early voting state. "One thing that crosses my mind is that this is information that the Iranians have put out, that they want us to kind of relax a little bit."

A couple of things to take out of this: If it is good intelligence, this is good news. At the same time, our intelligence in the middle east has proven recently to be questionable. As this is a complete turnaround on the intelligence, it should be viewed with a judicial eye.

By the way--if it turns out that this IS good intelligence, then this is a confirmation that Bush's "big stick" diplomacy actually worked in Iran as it did in Libya. If this is correct, we have strong evidence that the conservative approach to world peace is correct (i.e. peace through strength).