This is interesting.
Lacking direct evidence, Bush administration officials argue that Iran's nuclear program must be a cover for bomb-making. Vice President Cheney recently said, "They're already sitting on an awful lot of oil and gas. Nobody can figure why they need nuclear as well to generate energy."
Yet Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and outgoing Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz held key national security posts when the Ford administration made the opposite argument 30 years ago.
Looking beyond Cheney's ridiculous and inflammatory remarks, and the specific roles played by Cheney (then White House Chief of Staff) and Rumsfeld (he was Defense Secretary then too) in this very poorly thought out policy proposal from the past, I would like for you to briefly think about what this story might tell us about the president's plan to sell fighter jets to Pakistan. Is it really a great idea to sell dangerous jets to a military dictator with a tenuous hold on power over a country in which anti-US sentiment is extremely high?
Posted by armand at March 27, 2005 02:15 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs