While administration officials maintain that the intelligence estimate does not mean that the United States and its allies should ease the pressure, the practical consequence of the report has been to embolden Iran. It has also made it more likely that China and Russia, two of the countries with perhaps the smallest appetite for sanctions against Iran, will not agree to a new round of tough sanctions by the United Nations Security Council.

A de-fanged Cheney means the world goes about its business. The world’s business is not to lie down prostrate, but rather to counterbalance U.S. global dominance.

Yay?

I have long argued that America owes it to itself to explore fully the possibility of normalizing relations with Iran. We do not need to tranquilize ourselves to the danger in order to pursue a more peaceful world. What is required is a specific vision linking assurances for Iran’s security and respect for its identity with an Iranian foreign policy compatible with the existing order in the Middle East. But it must also generate an analysis of the strategy to be pursued should Iran, in the end, choose ideology over reconciliation.

Kissinger’s not been treated kindly by history for his Vietnam policy, and his rumored advice over Iraq to Bush Jr. doesn’t sound like it was too sagacious either. Nevertheless, this op-ed is right on: Iran policy does not end with the NIE. (And the politicization of intelligence has been disastrous for this country.)

Having read the WaPo page, I have to say I disagree with Drum’s and DeLong’s strident readings of it. Here’s what the page actually says:

President Bush yesterday vowed to continue pushing for international sanctions. But Democrats and some Republicans are arguing that now is the time for the Bush administration to begin a broad dialogue with Iran—and drop a precondition that the regime first suspend uranium enrichment. It’s an odd time to recommend such a concession: The latest European Union talks with Iran last week were a disaster, in which a new hard-line envoy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad withdrew the previous, inadequate Iranian compromise proposals. Were the Bush administration to abandon its insistence on a suspension of enrichment, Mr. Ahmadinejad would declare victory over the relative moderates in Iran who have recently criticized his uncompromising stance.

While one hopes that American strikes are off the table, it doesn’t sound like a bad idea to further ratchet up the pressure on Iran. The NIE doesn’t exactly transform Ahmadinejad into an interlocuteur valable. Negotiations are the art of extracting maximum advantage from your adversary without using actual physical force. One gets the sense that people are forgetting this amid the euphoria.