Vincenzo says: “by any reasonable measure, one would say that iran’s “sabre-rattling” of recent vintage has all the ring of desperation and fear.”

I would have to agree that Iran’s regime is indeed hollow. That’s why it pains me all the more that we invaded Iraq based on false pretenses. Let’s look at what it has done for Iran:

1) Overstretched our military. Iran knows that we cannot invade them while we are tied down in Iraq (and don’t forget Afghanistan!). At best, all we could muster is a few token airstrikes, which would only have the effect of strengthening their hold on the populace. Our empty “sabre-rattling” only emboldens them.
2) We’ve turned Iraq from an enemy to a future ally of Iran. If only Bush would have known the difference between Shiite and Sunni…:)
3) The draining of our financial reserves has steadily weakened the dollar, increasing the relative cost of oil and given Iran a huge financial boost, which they can leverage to finance their surrogates (Hamas, Hezbollah) to further destabilize other parts of the middle east.

If only we had had a true conservative in the white house during this time. They would have smashed Afghanistan (and captured Osama!) then been able to put massive pressure on Iran to stop their nuclear programs, not to mention the Pakis…