Petraeus works to halt foreign fighters.

DavidM said

Actually, being bordered by Iraq and Afghanistan, I don't think they know they aren't going to be invaded. In fact, with US troops positioned to their left and right, if I'm Iranian, I probably have concerns. If (pick any country) had taken up positions in Canada and Mexico, I don't think we'd be too comfortable.

Click to expand...

And the danger is, middle eastern temperaments what they are, that Iran's own hawks will overplay a hand and do something stupid that makes everything self fulfilling.

Bureacratic politics happen in every country. Just as the Pentagon was able to muscle forward and drive policy and propaganda on Iraq after 9/11 despite the fact that there were many opponents to the idea of attacking Iraq, including people of the stature of Colin Powell and and Brent Scowcroft, one worries that the Revolutionary Guard or some other combination of radicals in Iran will also muscle forward and welcome a confrontation that gets out of control.

People often miscalculate when they feel threatened and there are a lot of powerful people in Washington and in our media who are really hoping for Iran to overstep or miscalculate and provide the pretext for the airstrikes.

Indeed, if anything, our policy choices in the last 8 years have actually empowered the nuts and the hawks in Iran, including Ahmadinejad.

This can not be lost on the foreign policy genuises in Washington.