A couple of points/counterpoints:

* I dont think Iran's economy is all that weak. They are the 3rd or 4th largest oil producer in the world, and have Russia and China as their biggest customers.

* Yes, they do look like the Red Cross after handing back the British soldiers, and that was certainly their intent on that issue.

* The Brits may very well have been in Iran's territorial waters. This border area has been an issue of contention for a long time.

* The Iranians have been warning the world for a few years that they are switching their oil exchange over to the Euro, and since then, the US began jumping all over Iran's nuclear program, trying to drum up support in the media, which no longer investigates for themselves, they just regurgitate what the government tells them.

* Iran's president is not a nut case in the sense that Kim Jong Il is a nut case. Why are there no reports that the US is planning to attack N. Korea's nuclear capability? They already have nukes, and have tested them!! They are much more of a threat to our security than Iran, so why would we not attack them? Because they have no resources to exploit once we "free the Korean people" from this regime. AN attack on Iran is much more about money and oil (Iraq war) than it is about security or terrorism. Most experts agree that Iran is 10 years away from producing an nuke anyway. Meanwhile, N. Korea is lobbing missiles into the Sea of Japan, and could possibly hit targets on our west coast.

I dont want to sound like I'm in Iran's corner here, but, as with all political moves made by our government, we have to ask "Who benefits?" from a given conflict. Government contractors and oil companies (who have lots of friends and investors in D.C.)are making money hand over fist in Iraq at the cost of the lives of our soldiers, and the administration has promised that this is going to be a long war, and refuses to pull out. To quote Orwell... "the war isn't meant to be won or lost, it's meant to be continous".

Heroin production in Afghanistan has exploded since we took over, largely because the CIA uses drug money to fund arms sales and covert operations in places they aren't supposed to be doing business, and cannot put these items as a line item on any budget that uses tax dollars or is overseen by any committee.