The Invasion of Iran

The Bush administration is showing a bit more prudence in their campaign to thwart Iran's action as an "evil doer". Yesterday U.S. treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, made a statement encouraging top finance officials to limit or completely bar Iranian access to their financial institutions. From the NY Times:

The United States pressed the top finance officials of the worldÂ’s leading industrial nations on Saturday to crack down on what Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said was the exploitation of their banking systems by at least 30 Iranian front companies involved in illicit activities.

Iran is also accused of transferring funds to Hezbollah and other Islamic militant organizations through regular commercial banks.

Last week, in what administration officials call a major escalation in the effort to squeeze Iran economically, the Treasury Department announced that Bank Saderat, a major bank in Iran, would no longer have even indirect access to the United States financial system.

Hopefully this isn't a pre-emption of a pre-emptive attack on Iran.