New Assessment on Iran

From the NY Times

A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.
…
Iran is continuing to produce enriched uranium, a program that the Tehran government has said is designed for civilian purposes. The new estimate says that enrichment program could still provide Iran with enough raw material to produce a nuclear weapon sometime by the middle of next decade, a timetable essentially unchanged from previous estimates.

But the new estimate declares with “high confidence” that a military-run Iranian program intended to transform that raw material into a nuclear weapon has been shut down since 2003, and also says with high confidence that the halt “was directed primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure.”

I take this as further evidence that a military confrontation with Iran is ill-advised. Pressure from the international community seems to be having the desired effect. Let’s pursue that avenue sense it seems to be working. Afghanistan and Iraq are bad enough. We do not need to involve ourselves in another confrontation at this time.