Today's Washington Post front page article,
U.S. Campaign Is Aimed at Iran's Leaders, contains an interesting bit of information that is worth highlighting:
In the past week, the State Department created an Iran desk. Last year, only two people in the department worked full time on Iran; now there will be 10.
Think about this for a moment. Four years ago, in his State of the Union address, George Bush described Iran as being part of the 'Axis of Evil', one of the three countries in the entire world which posed the greatest danger to the United States. For the past four years, there have been ever-increasing warnings about the dangers of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons; during the past year there have been increasingly open suggestions from the Administration that the threat from Iran is so significant that military intervention may be necessary.
More below the fold.
Yet, to deal with this amazing threat, the State Department had only TWO full-time employees? And they only set up an Iran desk this week? Is the administration lying to us once more about the nature of the threats we face, or are they once more displaying their incompetence to deal with threats to our country? Or is this simply more evidence that civilian diplomacy has become completely irrelevent to this Administration's policy making, while the real power to make foriegn policy now lies exclusively with the military and various secret intelligence agencies?