Beaten to the punch

On Monday, I heard Terry Gross's interview with Seymour Hersh regarding his investigative article in this week's New Yorker, and article titled Preparing the Battlefield.

The article details the President's (and Vice President's) request to Congress - via a Presidential Finding - for four hundred million dollars to increase the United States' covert actions in Iran, and Hersh's reporting posits - with lots of evidence in support of the conclusion - that such an increase in covert action in a significant step toward the Bush administration's efforts to draw Iran into action allowing the United States to begin miltary action against the Iranian government before Bush leaves office in January of 2009.

The Presidential Finding is a necessity when the Executive Branch requests funding for covert action. All findings are viewed by a minimum of eyes - Congressional leaders known colloquially as the Gang of Eight - four Democratic and four Republican leaders, all of whom approved the significant outlay. That approval came about because they either truly supported the action or, as Hersh's sources suggest in some cases, simply provided a rubber stamp without providing due diligence or as a form of party politics expediency.

The first option - true support - is somewhat shocking, particularly from the four Democrat leaders and in light of the national level of disapproval for the current Iraq military action. The second option - rubber stamping - would be a heinous dereliction of duty it comes to be true. And the third possibility - approval for the sake of party politics, the Democrats wanting to not be seen a "weak on terror" - is every bit as atrocious a reason for the approval.

Hersh's reporting - regarding the massacre at My Lai, the current Iraq situation, the Bush administrations moves toward military action against Iran, the conditions at Abu Ghirab prison - is among the most important reporting going on today and provides his work with a level of gravitas that other reporters would not be able to garner.

Please take the time - as have Kyle and many others on the web - to read the New Yorker article, listen to the Fresh Air interview, and spread this information to others.

Whether you believe that the United States' presence in Iraq is/was justified and whether our possible presence in Iran would be as well, we should not allow our administration to use flawed or fabricated (depending on your level of charity for and faith in our current Commander in Chief) intelligence to draw us into an invasion of a third nation under his quickly expiring watch.