They've Got Some Nerve!

They want $85 million to undermine the current Iranian government? Heck, they spent $1.6 BILLION on propaganda here and Bush's approval ratings are in the toilet. The sheer gall of these people slays me.

The Bush administration, frustrated by Iranian defiance over its nuclear program, proposed Wednesday to spend $85 million to promote political change inside Iran by subsidizing dissident groups, unions, student fellowships and television and radio broadcasts.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, announcing a request for the money at a Senate hearing, said the administration had worked out a way to circumvent American laws barring financial relations with Iran to allow some money to go directly to groups promoting change inside the country.

'We are going to begin a new effort to support the aspirations of the Iranian people,' Ms. Rice said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 'We will use this money to develop support networks for Iranian reformers, political dissidents and human rights activists.'

Senior State Department officials said they did not intend to publicize recipients of the money in the future, for fear that they could be jailed or even killed.

'This is a very good idea, but all these efforts face the same problem,' said Michael McFaul, a political science professor at Stanford University. 'In working with their potential colleagues in Iran, will they get them into trouble? Once they participate in a training program, what happens to them back in their country?'

The scope of the administration's effort goes well beyond the numbers. Until now, the United States has been cautious about supporting dissident groups, fearful that Iranians, even those sympathetic to the West, may view these efforts as an echo of past American meddling in Iran's internal affairs. Though no one uses the words 'regime change' to describe the ultimate American goal, that term has been used by conservatives in Congress who have in the last few years pressed for aid to Iranian dissidents, in much the same way that Congress appropriated funds to Iraqi dissidents in the 1990's.

Ms. Rice said the State Department was requesting $75 million to promote democracy in Iran, which she said would be added to $10 million already appropriated for that purpose. The total is an increase from only $3.5 million the previous year. Until recently, the administration has been cautious about embracing the 'regime change' approach, but some conservatives at the Defense Department and Vice President Dick Cheney's office are known to be resigned to a nuclear-armed Iran and to argue that the best way to address that problem is by opening Iran to democracy and reform.

I think we have more than enough oars in the water in the Middle East and we've started more than enough strife, violence and turmoil. Do we really need to push the envelope by meddling in Iran?