The NIC is the office responsible for compiling intelligence from the various spy shops and distilling it down into the national intelligence estimate that informs the President. Ambassador Freeman’s habit of speaking truth to power was his greatest qualification, and his downfall. That Israel can control who serves on Obama’s National Intelligence Council should frighten every American. That the particular Israeli responsible, Stephen Rosen, currently faces espionage charges for selling US secrets to Israel, should make every American angry.

One would think that the neoconservative doctrine of US global hegemony got buried in the shifting sands of Iraq. Certainly the costs associated with occupying a hostile country for 5 ½ years, losing over 4000 soldiers in battle, while significantly strengthening the geopolitical position of the enemy next door (Iran) suggests the entire enterprise needs rethinking.

Yet, as Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to ascend to the Prime Ministerial position in Israel, the specter of war with Iran hangs over Obama’s entire foreign policy enterprise; threatening our withdrawal from Iraq, threatening our renewed dialog with Iran and Syria, and exacerbates attempts at redefining our strategy in Afghanistan. The entrenched neoconservative doctrine of perpetual war, promoted in Washington by current and former members of AIPAC, including Stephen Rosen, using campaign donations to buy loyalty, can be gleaned in Secretary Clinton’s refusal to deal with Hamas and her obfuscation on preconditions in negotiating with Iran. In many ways, despite President Obama’s pledge to reach out with an unclenched fist, US foreign policy is being written in Tel Aviv

China has taken notice. Following a visit there by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wherein China was assured by her that the US would look the other way on human rights issues in exchange for China’s cooperation in continuing to buy US Treasury notes, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced that his country was ‘worried’ about its holdings of over $1 trillion; an announcement that came on the heels of an incident in the South China Sea where Chinese naval vessels aggressively harassed a US intelligence ship, the Impeccable.

Russia has taken notice. Rather than dealing with the Obama administration on missile defense in Eastern Europe, President Medvedev has suggested that the US first deal with Iran, saying that Russia will not allow munitions to flow through northern routes into Afghanistan but rather they should come through Iran, via the Persian Gulf.

What US foreign policy needs right now is rapprochement with Iran.

Iran sits at the crossroads of failed US neoconservative doctrine.

Any orderly withdrawal from Iraq will require Iranian assistance in maintaining stability there.

Logistical support for ongoing operations in Afghanistan will likely require access to Iranian ports.  Iranian intelligence on Afghanistan, identifying ‘good’ Taliban versus ‘bad’ can play a critical role there.

Iran shares a strategic alliance with Pakistan, (SCO), and a strategic border with Afghanistan, and shares NATO’s strategic interest in eradicating heroin production and cross-border smuggling.

Iran shares membership in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with our Arab allies in the region, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar.

Iran has extensive economic ties with NATO ally Turkey, and a shared interest in stabilizing Kurdish regions of northern Iraq.

Despite these many shared geo-political interests, US foreign policy remains mired in Israeli-based, neoconservative dogma.

That Charles Freeman will not be heading Obama’s NIC, and Benjamin Netanyahu, as Prime Minister of Israel, will continue to pound the war drums toward Iran should tell every American all they need to know about the corrosive state of US/ Israeli relations.