'The Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran will, US officials concede, allow Iran to claim that it is not as isolated as Western leaders claim'

"... With polls continuing to show a very tight race, Romney will be intent in adhering close to his economic message and playing down less favorable issues like social questions and foreign policy. On the latter, we expect strong criticism of Obama as weak on defense, shortchanging the military, over-conciliatory to Russia and China and insufficiently supportive of Israel. The Obama administration is, we hear from contacts in the campaign team, more than ready to counter the Republicans in this field. On August 22^nd Secretary of Defense Panetta offered an expansive vision of US military commitments around the world, including the expansion of the existing US missile defense system to further sites in Southeast Asia. He committed the US to defend freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and to retain sufficient military resources to fight and win two simultaneous wars. Administration officials also believe that, despite some Republican criticism that US forces are withdrawing from Afghanistan prematurely, they have the ear of the country in drawing down the US military presence. Military officials continue to be worried about so-called “green-on-blue” incidents but otherwise voice public confidence that they have the situation under control. Privately, both State and Pentagon analysts are much less confident, but Afghanistan attracts little attention in the political debate. Next week’s Non Aligned Movement summit in Tehran will, US officials concede, allow Iran to claim that it is not as isolated as Western leaders claim. Despite media reports that Iran us accelerating its nuclear program, we see little evidence of any change in US policy of giving priority to sanctions. Syria remains a higher priority...."