Provocateurs

The Pentagon is walking a very fine line in its recent attempts to suss out Iran for possible intervention (if the European effort at negotiating nuclear containment, which is weakened by lack of American involvement, should fail):

The U.S. Air Force is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Iran's ayatollahs, flying American combat aircraft into Iranian airspace in an attempt to lure Tehran into turning on air defense radars, thus allowing U.S. pilots to grid the system for use in future targeting data, administration officials said.
. . .
A serving U.S. intelligence official added: "You need to know what proportion of your initial air strikes are going to have to be devoted to air defense suppression."

Maybe this is all a show to force Iran to submit to international oversight, but we already know what kind of patience our Administration has for diplomatic avenues...

(via Follow Me Here)

Update: looks like 42% of Americans would support an invasion of Iran, without the case's even having been made yet. I guess that the 81% who value international respect just don't understand cause & effect. We need a mandatory Junior Year Abroad program to open Americans' eyes to the dynamics of how we're perceived elsewhere...