[4] Teresa Nielsen Hayden describes the story on Making Light as, "the Oliver North/Guns for Hostages scandal, seen from the viewpoint of a CIA bureaucrat, in a universe in which the entire Cthulhu Mythos is real.
[8] The main viewpoint character, Roger Jourgensen, is a CIA analyst who writes up a report on the state of both the U.S. and Soviet governments' occult research for incoming President Ronald Reagan.
Satellite reconnaissance by the U.S. shows that the servitors may have been deployed in Afghanistan, which would violate a secret multinational treaty prohibiting the use of these alien entities in war to which even Adolf Hitler adhered.
One congressman, horrified by the accounts of the Colonel's dabbling, inquires about the Great Filter: why no aliens have openly stopped by to visit humanity, and only relics and servants remain.
While the committee is in session, Saddam manages to stabilise the gate of Yog-Sothoth, destroying opposing tribes in Iraq and causing Iran to retaliate with a nuclear attack.