The System Is Adequately Functioning

Andrew Sullivan has written a piece on how the release of the new NIE on Iran (as well as a return to saner policies following the Rumsfeld-Gates and Gonzales-Mukasey switches, Condi asserting herself over Cheney, etc) shows that "the system is working" and how "the Founders would for the first time be pleased" this year at how it has pushed back against extremes. I don't disagree per se (the examples cited do prove checks and balances got their groove back), but it says a lot at how low the bar has been set that the events of this past year seem praiseworthy in comparison to what came before.

For instance, all the examples Sullivan uses to innumerate the problems prior to any corrections this year-- "an untrammeled executive branch... contemptuous of critics and empowered by understandable public fear ... half-assed commitment to Afghanistan, the reckless over-reach with Iraq, the embrace of torture as a primary weapon in the war against Islamic terrorism, the loss of critical allies, the collapse of American moral standing, and then apocalyptic rhetoric over Iran"-- are still very much the reality of U.S. policy today. Yes, there's greater discussion and oversight of all of these things now, but in the grand scheme of things, the root policy remains untouched.

Moreover, we have a majority party that has yet to find a way to use its power to do anything but simply nibble around the edges. Even worse, the now-minority party has been bitter in defeat, and has been relentless in its obstruction and its search for a scapegoat.

Case in point: What are Republicans demanding an investigation into this week? Is it the reports that the CIA "destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives", thereby obstructing justice and engaging in criminal destruction of evidence? Right! Wrong!

No, Senate Republicans-- urged on neocon thinktanks and nutcases like John Bolton-- are...

..."planning to call for a congressional commission to investigate the conclusions of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran as well as the specific intelligence that went into it, according to congressional sources.

The move is the first official challenge, but it comes amid growing backlash from conservatives and neoconservatives unhappy about the assessment that Iran halted a clandestine nuclear weapons program four years ago."

If you are trying to recall the congressional commission investigating the Iraqi intel before we rushed off to war (or even one looking into Iran back when we were talking about WWIII), don't waste your time. Instead of being pleased that the latest intelligence allows us to ratchet down international tensions, and renew regional efforts to deal with Iran (and therefore Iraq too), they are livid that they have been robbed of a bogeyman and determined to keep those drums banging.

Now, I don't think that this will go anywhere; it's most likely the last, desperate squawking of a bitter crowd. Despite the White House playing fast and loose with what they knew and when they knew it, they are not contesting the findings of the NIE. The director of national intelligence stands by them; even VP Cheney does. But none of this means that sanity has, in general, returned to our foreign policy (yet).

Nor does it means we've developed an exit strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan. Or stopped using torture as official policy. Or regained our moral standing. Or stopped using fear to cow the public and the press. Etc.

So no celebrating yet. The 'system' still needs a lot of help and repair.

[Related reading: Forget War With Iran (Newsweek)]