In his column yesterday, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius made an important point:

Iran is waging an aggressive covert-action campaign to derail the agreement, U.S. officials say. The new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, highlighted Tehran’s push last week when he said Iranian operatives had been seeking to bribe Iraqi members of parliament to reject the pact when it comes up for a vote.

This public allegation of Iranian meddling drew a rebuke from Maliki, but U.S. officials say they have recently intercepted Iranian couriers carrying suitcases of money to pay bribes and political subsidies to pro-Iranian parties. It isn’t clear whether the United States is mounting a covert effort of its own to counter the Iranian campaign.

I too don’t know if the U.S. is “mounting a covert effort of its own to counter the Iranian campaign.” But I very much doubt it. My understanding is that senior administration officials have nixed such proposals in the past for fear of the embarrassment that would result if they were uncovered. They have worried, I am told, that the CIA didn’t have the competence to carry out such a campaign quietly behind the scenes. A muffed effort no doubt would result in nasty headlines about the U.S. supposedly violating Iraqi sovereignty and making a mockery of Iraqi democracy.

Those are legitimate concerns. But I am just as concerned that we have handcuffed ourselves with an untenable standard of conduct while our enemies show no such restraint. In the immediate post-World War II era, the CIA did an effective job of backing conservative parties in Italy, Japan, and other places in order to resist the takeover of pro-communist parties. Did that violate the sanctity of those countries’ political processes? That wasn’t how it was viewed at the time. The prevalent view was that we had to do whatever it took to counter communist influence. That mindset produced some excesses but it also helped us win the Cold War. I hope that we can show a similar dedication in the Global War on Terror, or whatever it’s being called this week. And if that means spreading some money around to counter Iranian money, so be it.