Last week, I encouraged readers to contact their representatives in Washington, urging them to resist when President Bush asks for a vote on attacking Iran.

Never mind.

In his New York Times column on Monday, Paul Krugman had this bleak assessment: the president isn't planning to ask anybody's permission to attack Iran. That's why he's insisting that Iran is meddling in Iraq --- "Because there's no way Congress will approve another war resolution," Krugman wrote. "But if you can claim that Iran is doing evil in Iraq, you can assert that you don't need authorization to attack --- that Congress has already empowered the administration to do whatever is necessary to stabilize Iraq. And by the time the lawyers are finished arguing --- well, the war would be in full swing."

(Krugman noted yet another indication that we're preparing to attack Iran. As it did before the Iraq war, the administration has set up "a special intelligence unit to cook up rationales for war," he wrote. And the person heading it is Abram Shulsky, who headed the unit that "helped sell the Iraq war with false claims about links to Al Qaeda," said Krugman.)