Hear The Quickening Drumbeat? That's Bush Pounding The War Drums On Iran

[Update: CNN is saying that Iraq's prime minister al Maliki is firmly telling both the U.S. and Iran to take their childish spat elsewhere; I agree: Iraq has enough problems without this. However, as far as I'm concerned, almost ALL of the evil overtures have been coming from 1600 Pennsylvania with Tehran basically batting them back as fast as they're lobbed.]

Let's see, Bush first tells Iranians they can't go into Iraq even though the supposedly sovereign and democratically elected government of Iraq has invited them. Then he tells the troops to raid any Iranian offices in Iraq. THEN he swears out a death warrant on any Iranian "operatives" (which, in Bush parlance, could mean someone selling kabobs in downtown Tikrit) found in Iraq...

But I guess it's just unthinkable that - just possibly, because we have no idea whether this is a stunt "shaped" by the Bush Administration as another excuse for another war - Iranians might take the bellicose rhetoric to heart and strike back. From AP:

Citing Iranian involvement with Iraqi militias and Tehran's nuclear ambitions, the Bush administration has shifted to offense in its confrontation with Iran — building up the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf and promising more aggressive moves against Iranian operatives in Iraq and Lebanon.

The behind-the-scenes struggle between the two nations could explode into open warfare over a single misstep, analysts and U.S. military officials warn.

Iraq has become a proxy battleground between Washington and Tehran, which is challenging — at least rhetorically — America's dominance of the Gulf. That has worried even Iraq's U.S.-backed Shiite prime minister, who — in a reflection of Iraq's complexity — also has close ties to Iran.

Iran and the United States are already sparring on the ground.

On Jan. 20, militants kidnapped and killed four American soldiers in a raid in Karbala, and a fifth was killed in the firefight. A U.S. defense official said one possibility under study is that Iranian agents either executed or masterminded the attack, a suspicion based on the sophisticated and unusual methods used in the attack, including weapons and uniforms that may have been American.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe is ongoing.

There has been speculation that the Karbala assault may have been in retaliation for the arrest of five Iranians by U.S. troops in northern Iraq.

I would NOT take this with a pinch of salt. After what Bush has done before, there is absolutely zero reason to assume that what we're being told here is anything residing even within the same hemisphere as the truth.