Iraq was just the beginning:

Founded this summer by a dozen wealthy conservatives, the nonprofitgroup  [Freedom's Watch] is set apart from most advocacy groups by the immense wealth ofits core group of benefactors, its intention to far outspend its rivalsand its ambition to pursue a wide-ranging agenda. Its next target: Iranpolicy.

Next month, Freedoms Watch will sponsor a private forumof 20 experts on radical Islam that is expected to make the case thatIran poses a direct threat to the security of the United States,according to several benefactors of the group.

(...)

One benefactor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said thegroup was hoping to raise as much as $200 million by November 2008.Raising big money will be easy, the benefactor said, adding thatseveral of the founders each wrote a check for $1 million. Mr. Blakemanwould not confirm or deny whether any donor gave $1 million, or more,to the organization.

Since the group is organized as atax-exempt organization, it does not have to reveal its donors and itcan not engage in certain types of partisan activities that directlysupport political candidates. It denies coordinating its activitieswith the White House, although many of its donors and organizers arewell connected to the administration, including Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary.

(...)

Mr. Fleischer said: After the president announced the surge, and even Republicansstarted getting nervous, there was a palpable fear among several of usthat this fall Congress was going to cut off the funding and the MiddleEast would explode and America would likely get hit. It really wasntmuch more complicated than that.

That may be the best description of this drumbeat so far. Read the whole story in today's New York Times.