Hersh: "Hitting Iran is Bush and Cheney's Wet Dream"

This post, written by Amanda Terkel, originally appeared on Think Progress

In February, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh wrote a piece in The New Yorker revealing that the Bush administration was setting its sights heavily on Iran, planning for a "possible bombing attack":

Still, the Pentagon is continuing intensive planning for a possible bombing attack on Iran, a process that began last year, at the direction of the President. In recent months, the former intelligence official told me, a special planning group has been established in the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, charged with creating a contingency bombing plan for Iran that can be implemented, upon orders from the President, within twenty-four hours.

On Tuesday, Hersh spoke more on the Bush administration's focus on Iran at the Campus Progress National Conference. He said that President Bush and Vice President Cheney are ignoring the actual intelligence on Iran. The "intelligence community keeps on saying, 'There's no bomb there.' And Cheney keeps on saying to the young briefing officers, 'Thank you son, I don't buy that.'" Hersh added, "George Bush's and Dick Cheney's wet dream is hitting Iran." (The video is to your right.)

Hersh also stated that Bush likes to compare himself to Winston Churchill. Sources close to the President have heard him "say things like, 'It'll be 20 years before they appreciate me. ... Yes, I may be at 30 percent in the polls, but in 20 or 30 years, they'll appreciate what I've done.'"