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Should we worry about Iranian nukes?

December 11, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward

   
 

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Steve Forbes discusses the mortgage crisis and the economy before the Chicago Committee for Heritage

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The mainstream media has jumped on a new National Intelligence Estimate which concludes that Iran ended its nuclear weapons programs in 2003.

Does the new intelligence finding mean we shouldn’t be concerned about the mullahs’ nuclear aims? Not necessarily.

“There is still plenty of reason to worry about the current and future state of Iran’s atomic ambitions,” argues Heritage national security expert Peter Brookes. For example, he notes that the report “confirms Iran had a nuclear weapons program” and “could decide to restart the program at any time.”

Heritage Middle East expert Jim Phillips echoes this concern. “Even if the key judgments of the most recent NIE prove to be entirely correct, they could be taken out of context by misleading news coverage that suggests that the long-term threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions has ebbed.”

“It is not known what prompted this unprecedented reversal of intelligence analysis,” Phillips continues. Nevertheless, he points out that “several knowledgeable experts have charged that the NIE is critically flawed.”

Take our poll: Given the conclusions of the new National Intelligence Estimate, does Iran continue to pose a threat to the United States?

Two more problems with the energy bill

Heritage Foundation experts have been working diligently to expose the flaws in the liberal-backed energy legislation now moving through Congress. They have identified two key problems with the proposal in just the past week.

  1. Higher prices at the pump. As a result of the bill, consumers would pay 22 cents more per gallon in 2008 than they otherwise would, according to an analysis from Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis. Californians could pay as much as $3.61 per gallon next year, and New Yorkers $3.50. And by 2016, consumers across the nation could fork over an average of $837 more per year on gas.

    » Find out how your state would be affected with our interactive map
  1. Misguided mandates. The result of the energy bill would be “less energy, greater dependence on foreign sources of energy, and higher prices,” writes Heritage’s Jack Spencer. That’s in part because it mandates the use of politically-favored “clean” technologies, like solar power, instead of allowing free enterprise and competition to determine whether efficient solutions like nuclear energy might better fit the bill.

Forbes: Don’t overreact on mortgages

The way out of the current financial turmoil is for government to avoid overreaction, Heritage Foundation Trustee Steve Forbes told Heritage members attending the 7th annual Chicago Business Luncheon on Thursday.

» Watch the video on MyHeritage.org

The American economy is fundamentally very sound, he said, but hasty actions by regulators could blow up the current mortgage problems into a much bigger crisis. Well-intentioned changes could cause further economic damage.

“Don’t overreact,” he cautioned, “and we’ll see these things through.”

Forbes, who took questions from the audience after his prepared remarks, also said conservatives should work hard to ensure candidates for elected office hold to conservative principles.

And he said The Heritage Foundation is critical to conservative success, not only because our experts “fight in the trenches on the issues of the day” but because they “lay the foundation” for long-term reforms on issues like taxes.

What the Founders meant by religious liberty

The Left often represents religious liberty as meaning the complete severing of religion from public life. But that’s not at all the vision the Founders had for the country, Heritage scholar Matthew Spalding argues in a new analysis.

The Founders, he explains “never intended—indeed, roundly rejected—the idea of separating religion and politics.” Instead, they understood that religion and morality are “indispensable supports of good habits, the firmest props of the duties of citizens, and the great pillars of human happiness.”

They did seek a certain separation of church and state, Spalding continues, in that “church doctrine would not determine the laws, and laws would not determine church doctrine.”

But liberals also argue that times have changed, that religion no longer has a place in public life even if it did two centuries ago. Not so, says Spalding: “Rebuilding a post-welfare state society demands the return of religion and faith-based institutions to their central role in the nation's civic and public life. To attain this, Americans must abandon the interpretation, maintained by the Supreme Court, that religion is in conflict with freedom and that any 'endorsement' of religion creates an unconstitutional religious establishment.”

See John Bolton at Heritage on December 19

John Bolton will make a special appearance at The Heritage Foundation at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 19 to discuss his new book, Surrender Is Not an Option, about his experiences as America’s ambassador to the United Nations.

» RSVP to attend this event at Heritage.org/Press/Events/

The importance of marriage

Buried in social science data are a plethora of facts that reinforce the importance traditional marriage and family life.

One study, conducted in 2001 and highlighted by Heritage Foundation experts on familyfacts.org, found that “married individuals in all age groups were more likely to become affluent than peers who were not married, and the marriage advantage increased with age.” In other words, married individuals do better for themselves than singles.

In other news

  • Gen. David Petraeus reports a 60 percent drop in violence in Iraq over the past six months.
  • Having failed to pass a number of key spending bills by the Sept. 30 deadline, Congress is now looking to bundle them together into an “omnibus” bill that includes $18 billion more in outlays than the President requested. The White House quite rightly says the plan as currently outlined “is not fiscally responsible” and threatens a veto. Heritage’s Rob Bluey suggests that Congress authorize 2008 spending at 2007 levels—saving taxpayers money.
  • A Rhode Island court has ruled that the state cannot begin divorce proceedings for a same-sex couple because the government defines marriage as between a man and a woman. The couple was “married” in Massachusetts.
  • President Bush announced measures last Thursday to relieve the credit crunch. Under the plan, interest rates would be frozen for five years for certain borrowers with subprime mortgages.
  • In Denmark, workers are fleeing the country’s oppressively high income tax rates for locales that let them keep more of their hard-earned money.
  • Reversing course in the face of criticism from conservatives and others, NBC has agreed to air an advertisement from Freedom’s Watch thanking the troops for their service.
  • Teenage pregnancy is on the rise, according to a new report, and liberals were quick to blame conservatives who advocate waiting until marriage to have sex. This line of attack is “stupid,” Heritage’s Robert Rector told The New York Times. Instead, he said “we should be telling [young women] that for the well-being of any child, it’s critically important that you be over the age of 20 and that you be married.”
  • Radical environmentalists continue to push policies suggesting that their movement is more about government control than realistic solutions. One scientist has proposed a “carbon tax” on “excess” children for their future carbon emissions—including emissions from breathing.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other events at Heritage please RSVP at Heritage’s website.  Or you can view these events live online.  All times are Eastern.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Colin Gowan contributed to this report.