Originally published on the CGS blog on September 12, 2007.
My colleague, Scott Paul, raises some good points about a about a recent(-ish) Washington Post editorial attack on Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency over at The Washington Note. While my first reaction was more emotional and “straight from the gut” than Scott’s rational and reasoned response, I still believe my assessment of the Post’s Editorials is on point–they’re generally terrible, and only marginally better than those found at the the Washington Times. But here’s where Scott and I agree:
There’s plenty of sloppy thinking in this piece, but the second paragraph is really a gem:
Mr. ElBaradei was lionized by opponents of the Iraq war for debunking Bush administration charges that Saddam Hussein had restarted his nuclear program before the 2003 invasion. Emboldened, he has now set himself a new task: stopping what he considers to be the “crazies” in Washington who “want to say, ‘Let us go and bomb Iran.’ ” We’re not part of that camp, though we consider its members saner than many of the statements of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But what’s really unacceptable is Mr. ElBaradei’s way of accomplishing his aim, which is to excuse the Iranian activity that most justifies the would-be bombers — uranium enrichment — while also trying to undermine the principal non-military leverage against it, which is economic sanctions.
Let’s review. First, the Post insinuates that Dr. ElBaradei doesn’t deserve a feather in his cap for getting Iraq WMDs right when the world’s largest intelligence bureaucracy got it wrong.
Then comes a weird, backwards bit of logic. To summarize: Iran hawks are less crazy than Ahmedinejad. That means that Iran hawks are sane. Therefore, ElBaradei, who wants to stop the Iran hawks, is crazy.
If you’re keeping score, that’s a whole lotta crazy and very little sanity. Our resident nuclear expert, Natasha Khianey, keeps warning me about getting involved in nuclear issues, because she says it’ll make me “crazy”…now I understand why!
