As tension over Iran heats up, I sure do wish a more rational, level-headed administration were in charge in Washington.

Iran is bragging that it has test-launched nine missiles, and that it's capable of launching missiles that could reach Israel. Is Iran doing this out of fear that the US or Israel is preparing an attack? Is it doing it because it plans to attack Israel? Is it simply trying to look tough in discussions over its uranium enrichment?

Even the administration is divided on those questions, apparently. But Bush and Cheney still believe in pre-emption. And there's no question what would happen if the US or Israel attacked Iran. That would unleash horror and instability in that part of the world, and it would take generations to overcome it.

George Bush and Dick Cheney didn't foresee the result of the US attack on Iraq. Increasingly, it looks as if they're equally blind to the dangers of an attack on Iran.

In "Preparing the Battlefield," in the current New Yorker, Seymour Hersh offers his latest report on the administration's Iran plans. Among Hersh's troubling revelations: the US has ramped up its covert activities in Iran - with the support of both the Republican and the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate and the leaders of the Congressional intelligence committees.