Iran

I agree with Atrios - I really don't understand why some are calling Iran the greatest threat to the Republic. As best I can figure, if Iran acquires a bomb they pose the greatest threat to Israel. Currently, Iran doesn't even have the missiles capable of launching a warhead at the United States. Now of course, with only a couple warheads, Iran could pretty much destroy Israel - hit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and there isn't much left. This may be an unacceptable risk for the Israelis - but judging from their history, if Iran ever appears to be readying an attack, the Israelis won't hesitate to take preemptive action. Sure, Iran would face immediate and full nuclear retaliation from the United States if they did attack that would wipe their country off the map, but that might be small comfort to Israelis who would no longer have a country.

So, Iran is pretty clearly a threat to Israel, but is also using the nuclear issue to rally the country around opposition to the west - similar to the way Pakistan and India used the nuclear issue to further national unity and support for the government.

With all these factors at play, does anyone really think Iran will attack Israel or the United States? And shouldn't we consider that on issues like this the US has consistently misunderstood the threat or the origins of the threat? Perhaps most importantly, if Iran IS such a threat - what is our entire Army doing in Iraq?