Sowing the Wind

According to an article in the New Yorker by Seymour Hersh, the Bush Administration is expanding covert operations in Iran aimed at destabilizing that nation.

The Democrats are going along with this.

"These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership."

First, there is the rank hypocrisy involved in this. The Bush Administration has spared no effort in complaining about Iranian-funded interference in Iraq, but the Bushies seem to think it is just peachy to fund guerrillas operating inside Iran.

Second is the sheer stupidity of this. We are not dealing with people who are disinclined to take vengeance. After the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner, killing 290 civilians, the Iranians allegedly arranged for the bombing of a Pan Am airliner, killing almost as many people.

The Bush Administration is smoking crack if it thinks that it can carry our covert actions inside Iran without repercussions. The Democrats are complicit in this, too. The Iranians have too many ways to make their displeasure known.

If all of a sudden there is a major ramping-up of violence inside Iraq, the blame for that may well reside, once again, with George Bush and his cadre of incompetent mischief-makers.

UPDATE: Of course, the Bush Administration is denying everything.