Send in the clowns...to Iran

In arid prose, Seymour Hersh warns us of The Coming Wars in today's New Yorker. Hersh explains that circumstances and driving ideological ambition have conspired to accelerate rising tensions in Iran.

In my interviews over the past two months, I was given a much harsher view. The hawks in the Administration believe that it will soon become clear that the Europeans’ negotiated approach cannot succeed, and that at that time the Administration will act. “We’re not dealing with a set of National Security Council option papers here,” the former high-level intelligence official told me. “They’ve already passed that wicket. It’s not if we’re going to do anything against Iran. They’re doing it.”

George Tenent resigns. His replacement, Porter Goss, purges ranks for political correctness. Bush hands Rumsfeld a ringing endorsement. Bush says voters ratified his management of the war on terror. Rumsfeld has consolidated power and now controls covert operations that were formerly under the CIA's perview. Voila! Congress has no oversight in covert operations.

Now, the Pentagon is busy disavowing Hersh's article. But does anyone really doubt that we are running operations across the Iraq/Iran border into Iran or that the neocons aren't beating the war drums at the Pentagon and State? Hersh continues:

The government consultant told me that the hawks in the Pentagon, in private discussions, have been urging a limited attack on Iran because they believe it could lead to a toppling of the religious leadership. “Within the soul of Iran there is a struggle between secular nationalists and reformers, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the fundamentalist Islamic movement,” the consultant told me. “The minute the aura of invincibility which the mullahs enjoy is shattered, and with it the ability to hoodwink the West, the Iranian regime will collapse”—like the former Communist regimes in Romania, East Germany, and the Soviet Union. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz share that belief, he said.

I can only greet this news with a deep sigh. Iran is a real threat and a real tinderbox. It is terribly unfortunate that we must greet it with the leadership at hand. Their best thinking has drastically increased the enemy forces arrayed against us, turned Iraq into an orphan factory while literally watching our border defenses decay. I'm not surprised, mind you. Sad, but not surprised. The President is a man of his word. He promised more of the same and that is what he will deliver. It won't be pretty.