Political Capital

Thom Hartmann points to political capital as the main reason for our Iranian adventures.

So, too, it appears that Bush is now ginning up a new war just in time for the 2006 midterm elections, and Karl Rove probably has a 2007 continuing war in mind to help swing the 2008 elections (or postpone them).
...Hold on to the Republican majority. Prevent investigations of the many crimes of his administration by denying Democrats the power of the subpoena that comes with a majority in the House or Senate

Hartmann puts the future in perspective when he states

unless Democrats in Congress and the American people stand up and speak out - in the process Bush and his Republican enablers may just bring about the end of the great American experiment in democracy.

If we follow the Iran plans set forth already, it is not just the "American experiment in democracy", it may be the human experiment on Earth that may end or be very dramatically curtailed. Nuclear weapons, millions dead, Shiite uprisings, shifts of poweer... Logic and history, as Hartmann points out, shows one path to travel. W and his cabal are walking down a very different (and dangerous) one.