Sirius_Sir: I’ll posit the Iranian display is actually a sign of weakness, meant as much for internal consumption as for an external threat/warning.

It’s not like the Iranians just decided to conduct two tests in a vacuum with no provocation to trigger it. So I’ll posit the Israeli air power exercise, and the joint US-Israeli operations over Iraq are a signs of weakness as well, with Olmert being cornered with his fraud allegations, and McCain confronted by an election season dominated by bread-and-butter issues with no scary foreign policy thing to wave in the face of voters.