Jonathan Landay: Confused? Or dishonest?

Earlier I blogged about Jonathan Landay's article on the McClatchy Iraq web site. Landay begins his article with this quote:

Despite President Bush's claims that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons that could trigger "World War III," experts in and out of government say there's no conclusive evidence that Tehran has an active nuclear-weapons program.

The point of Landay's article is that Bush is banging the drums of war even though there is no evidence Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Lefty bloggers got Landay's point, loud and clear. See here and here and here. (Even though Landay himself admitted Bush's approach toward Iran is reasonable - but he tucked that away in paragraph 7.)

But is Landay being honest about what President Bush said? Here is the actual quote:

Q But you definitively believe Iran wants to build a nuclear weapon?

THE PRESIDENT: I think so long -- until they suspend and/or make it clear that they -- that their statements aren't real, yeah, I believe they want to have the capacity, the knowledge, in order to make a nuclear weapon. And I know it's in the world's interest to prevent them from doing so. I believe that

the Iranian -- if Iran had a nuclear weapon, it would be a dangerous
threat to world peace. But this -- we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously. And we'll continue to work with all nations about the seriousness of this threat. Plus we'll continue working the financial measures that we're in the process of doing. In other words, I think -- the whole strategy is, is that at some point in time, leaders or responsible folks inside of Iran may get tired of isolation and say, this isn't worth it. And to me, it's worth the effort to keep the pressure on this government.

There you have it. Two facts stand out after looking at Landay's article: Jonathan Landay is being dishonest, and, Bush's position on Iran is reasonable. No wonder the media's credibility is dropping.