Iran

Yesterday on NPR, a story on the problems in Iraq and how the lack of troops available in the future will limit options was followed closely by a story about Iran. The second story included this quote:

Similarly, the Bush administration is divided over how to deal with Iran, with advocates of diplomatic engagement in the State Department — there have been two rounds of U.S.-Iranian talks in Baghdad this year — having to fend off pressure from more hard-line figures, like Vice President Dick Cheney.

It's not clear at the moment who is winning this battle, says Karim Sadjadpour, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The piece indicated the consensus option seems to be that the Bush and Iran administrations are posturing. The implied threats of force on both sides are just political games to get the other to capitulate.

But any talk of action against Iran seems to be ignoring the elephant in Iraq - we don't have enough troops now. So either the "hard-line figures" are posturing or they're willfully ignoring reality. Or both, which seems to be the default setting these days.