Iran has no WMD program. That's why they must be bombed.

President Bush has stated that the national intelligence estimate indicating that Iran ceased its bid for nuclear viability in 2003 proves that we need to ratchet up more pressure on Iran.

That's right; because they stopped their weapons program, we must continue to threaten them with sanctions, leave "all options on the table", and so on.

After all, it's nothing but a vast left wing (and intelligence community) conspiracy that denies that World War III, instigated by a nuclear Iran, is imminent.

And naturally this dovetails precisely with the thinking of the saber-rattling, chest-beating, war mongering neoconservatives, Dick Cheney as usual leading the charge. Are you “formidable”, and do you have nuclear weapons? Then we don’t want to mess with you. But if you appear to be formidable and “evil”, but aren’t a threat -- real or imagined, to the US or your neighbors or anyone else -- then it is of the utmost importance to make sure that the weapons that aren’t being developed ... well, aren’t developed. Which is why the NIE confirms the reason why Iran must be attacked. ASAP.

Norman Podhoretz (he advises Rudy G) says so. John Bolton says so.

Update: Even though national security director Stephen Hadley and director of national intelligence Mike McConnell briefed senior administration officials on the NIE "beginning in July", Bush apparently knew nothing about it until Tuesday of this week (as he claimed in his press conference). Yet he mentioned it to Israeli prime minister Ehud Ohmert on Monday, November 26.

Why does anyone believe anything these people say any more? Even the locals, a rather Republican bunch, have stopped drinking the war Kool-Aid.