I’m no Nostradamus, but even I could see this coming.

The administration, conscious of its low credibility, believes it has gone out of its way to convince doubters that Iran is not Iraq all over again.

“No, no, no, no,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said Monday in response to questions about whether the administration embellished evidence against Iran in a U.S. military briefing in Baghdad the previous day. “I’m almost ready to hit my head on the microphone.”

Considering how many innocent people the Bush administration is considering killing or getting killed, I’m almost ready to hit something besides a microphone.

“The idea that somehow we’re manufacturing the idea that the Iranians are providing [explosives] is preposterous,” Bush said [in yesterday’s press conference].

You think this is a game Mr. President? Remember Milt Bearden?

“As insane as the prospect for war might seem to those of us who have spent parts of our lives in the shadow of a mosque, it is impossible to ignore the drumbeats for war with Iran. Yes, I think Americans should be prepared to wake up one morning and find themselves at war with Iran.”-
Milt Bearden is an author and film consultant. A former senior CIA officer, he served as station chief in Pakistan from 1986 until the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989.

I think Milt Bearden has earned the right to be listened to. He implemented the strategy that led to the expulsion of the Soviets from Afghanistan. I think he might understand the mujahideen and Sunni extremists in general. I think he might know the difference between Arabs and Persian, Shi’ites and Sunnis. And I think he might have some inside knowledge about the intentions of the administration. He says we might just wake up one day and discover we are at war with Iran.

Hillary Clinton responded to that fear yesterday.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the early Democratic presidential front-runner, went to the Senate floor after Bush’s news conference to insist that he ask Congress for permission before attacking Iran. “It would be a mistake of historical proportion if the administration thought that the 2002 resolution authorizing force against Iraq was a blank check for the use of force against Iran without further congressional authorization,” she said.

You’d think she was trying to win a Democratic primary or something. But, she’s right….it would be a historic mistake to attack Iran when we don’t even have enough troops to sustain rotations in Iraq. You know? If Milt Bearden is correct, I think we ought to declare a new doctrine: preemptive and unilateral impeachment.