PORTLAND PRESS HERALD, MAINE, December 11, 2007
Many have followed with alarm the release of the National Intelligence Estimate revealing that the administration knew (at least by this past August, if not earlier) that Iran does not have a nuclear-weapons program. How could our president have ignored this reality and continued to fan the flames of public fear of a nuclear-armed Iran to justify threatening military action against Iran?

Even more alarming is that this makes no difference to President Bush, who responded to the release by declaring: “Iran needs to be taken seriously as a threat to peace,” and “My opinion hasn’t changed.”

He also said, “If Iran shows up with a nuclear weapon at some point in time, the world is going to say, what happened to them in 2007?”…”It’s not going to happen on my watch.”

He yet again emphasized that “all options” remain on the table. Attacking Iran would be disastrous, as Physicians for Social Responsibility concluded in a March 2007 report, “War is Not the Answer: The Medical and Public Health Consequences of Attacking Iran,” available at www.psr.org. Even after a limited attack, the impact on the people of Iran would unfold for years to come, with reverberations throughout the Middle East. It is well past time to shift national policy away from provoking another war and toward direct diplomatic engagement with Iran.

If President Bush lacks the wisdom to initiate a diplomatic “surge,” Congress must act immediately to at least prevent him from launching unjustified military action against Iran.

Peter Wilk, M.D., President
Physicians for Social Responsibility/Maine
Sebago